Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hoosiers

Do you know what a hoosier is? Probably not, unless you are from the St. Louis area. (And no, it's not someone from Indiana.) ‘Hoosier’ is a term that I've always been familiar with, and I grew up assuming it was a term that everyone knew and used. (The best way I can describe what ‘hoosier’ means is that someone is low class. Red neck, hick or white trash would be synonyms terms that could be used in conjunction with or instead of hoosier.)

As I've gotten older I've realized that no one else in the country or even outside of the St. Louis area uses this term, or even knows what it means. I think it's funny when someone refers to someone as a hoosier around someone who didn't grow up in the St. Louis area, because they inevitably end up scratching their heads and are confused until someone clues them in on this local slang. It makes me wonder what other terms/slang exist in different parts of the country that only folks local to that area understand.

2 comments:

Kellie said...

Casey and I use that word all the time and sisters are always "What?"

It's not exactly the same, but out West they say "pop" instead of "soda."

Pippa said...

We have the same sort of thing here in the UK (even though we're a much smaller country than the US!)... I have friends from other regions who always make me laugh when they don't understand slang words from my area such as 'mardy' meaning grumpy or moody. I've only ever heard the word 'hoosiers' as the name of a pop band (I'm not sure if they're popular over there?!)

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