Yokel

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈjəʊ.kəl/

Definitions

1. An individual from a rural background often displays a certain innocence or simplicity that contrasts with urban life
2. A resident of a less populated area may be seen as unrefined or lacking in awareness of broader societal norms
3. A person native to a rural region may be perceived as unsophisticated or lacking exposure to urban culture and its complexities

Etymology: The most striking thing about "yokel" is that its best-known candidate origin is a German given name. The word first appears in English around 1812, and one proposal links it to a dialectal German "Jokel," a diminutive of Jakob, the same kind of pet form that gave us "Yankee" from a Dutch "Jan" (little John). On this view, a rustic was a "Jack" or "Hodge"-style everyman, a name stuck onto country folk the way plain names often became generic labels for peasants. The parallel with "jacquerie," the name later used for a French peasant uprising, shows how readily such names were turned into words for rural people. The other proposal is less personal. In dialectal English, "yokel" or "yuckle" named the green woodpecker, a bird whose laughing call and rustic habits may have suggested a country bumpkin. That bird name is probably itself a variant of "hickwall," so the word may come from the countryside's wildlife rather than from a person's name. Dictionaries have not settled between the two, so the German and English-bird origins remain the live options.

Synonyms: rube, bumpkin, hick, country bumpkin, simpleton

Antonyms: sophisticate, city dweller, urbanite, intellectual, expert