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

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Billy-boys of the hill country" is a new one on me - to put it mildly.

And since the vast majority of Americans were Protestants themselves, why
stigmatize the _*Billy Boys_?

Until someone provides some continuity of usage, from the 18th C. to 1891,
the theory has no credence with me.

JL

JL



On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 6:19 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: hillbillies -- (information from Jack Morgan's article)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>        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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