hillbillies -- (information from Jack Morgan's article)

[Baker, John]

        Does Morgan provide support for these assertions?  "Hillbilly"
is attested only back to 1891 (per Fred Shapiro).  That's a pretty long
time after "well into the 18th century."  Also, Google Books shows a
reasonable large number of "Billy-boy" attestations from the 19th
century, but the term is not particularly associated with the hills of
the American South.  Most examples are either quotations from the
familiar folk song or use of the term to mean a kind of English barge.

        I'm not sure that "hillbilly" really needs explanation beyond
that "Billy" is a common name that rhymes with "hill" (plus the -y
diminutive).  "Billy" is a Scottish term meaning a comrade or fellow,
and it's plausible that Scotch-Irish settlers could have brought the
term to America, but again, I don't know of any evidence for that.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Cohen, Gerald Leonard
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:27 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: hillbillies -- (information from Jack Morgan's article)

Sure, here's the last paragraph of Jack Morgan's article:

'Adamson points out that the early Protestant Irish settlers in the
Appalachian mountains had a stock of folk songs harkening back to the
victory of William of Orange (popularly known as "King Billy") over the
Catholic forces of James II at the Boyne River in 1690-the central event
in "Orange" Protestant Irish lore.  These settlers had emigrated in
considerable numbers to the American south Atlantic colonies from the
mid-1600's well into the 18th century.  Due to their preoccupation with
their hero "King Billy," Adamson notes, "they became known as
'Billy-boys of the hill country,' or 'hillbillies.'"  Many of them, of
course, eventually migrated into the Ozark plateau.'

------Gerald Cohen

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