Cornhusker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A worker who extracts husks from corn cobs is also recognized as a resident of Nebraska, often associated with local farming traditions and agricultural activities
2. An individual who strips the outer covering from ears of corn ; a person living in or originating from the state of Nebraska
3. Someone engaged in taking husks off corn cobs by hand or machinery ; a native or inhabitant of Nebraska, often linked to its farming heritage

Etymology: Anyone who has spent a September afternoon in the Midwest knows the job: a "husker" pulls the papery sheath off an ear of corn. The word "cornhusker" simply joins "corn" with "husker," the person who husks, so the agent sense came first, long before the term became a nickname for a whole state. The jump from the cornfield to Nebraska is the surprising part. Nebraska's farms were famously dominated by corn, and people from the state came to be called Cornhuskers, a label that stuck so firmly that the University of Nebraska's sports teams took it as their name. Today the word is as likely to bring to mind a football stadium as a field of ears, though the older agricultural meaning is still the literal one.

Synonyms: harvester, farmer