hillbilly

Etymology

It is formed from English hill + billy.^[2][3][4][5] Most dictionaries take the second part as Billy, the pet form of the name William,^{[4][3][6][7][8][5]} while the OED takes it as billy in the Scots sense "fellow", recorded from 1773.^[2] Etymonline notes that in Scott's collection of Border ballads the form “billie” is a frequent term of address for a comrade, a brother or a young man, said to be a variant of bully in its old sense "sweetheart, fine fellow".^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person from the backwoods or the hills: Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1881.^[3] Etymonline's earliest quotation is from the Railroad Trainmen's Journal of July 1892,^[5] and the OED's, also given by the Dictionary of American Regional English, from the New York Journal of 23 April 1900, which defines a "Hill-Billie" as a free white citizen of Alabama who lives in the hills, has little money and drinks whiskey when he gets it.^[2][9][5]

Semantic evolution

The word first referred to the poor white people of the hill country of the southern United States,^[5][9] and the Dictionary of American Regional English records it from Alabama, Georgia and Missouri in the early 20th century, rarely also as hill William.^[9] It soon came to mean any countrified or uncouth person; a Kentucky collection of about 1960 calls it a derogatory term for a greenhorn or yokel, not for a hill-dweller as such.^[9] From 1924 it also named a type of American folk music, the forerunner of country and western.^[2][5][6] As an adjective, rustic or countrified, it is used in phrases such as hillbilly bread and hillbilly town.^[9][3]

Timeline

• 1881 – a person from a backwoods or mountain area, especially of the southern United States.^[3] Etymonline's first quotation is from 1892, and the OED's from 1900.^[5][2]
• 1908 – a lazy or uncouth countryman, in Alabama and Georgia.^[9]
• 1924 – a kind of American folk music.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often disparaging, offensive) A person from a backwoods or remote mountain area, especially of the southern United States: The film made fun of hillbillies.^{[3][6][10][11]}
2. An unsophisticated or uncouth country person; a yokel.^[6][9]
3. Hillbilly music; country and western.^[6][3][2]

Adjective

1. Of, like or relating to hillbillies; rustic, countrified: a hillbilly accent.^[3][10][9]
2. Relating to or typical of hillbilly music.^[3]

Word family

• rockabilly
• hillbilly music

Related words

• hill
• billy

Usage notes

The word is often used to disparage, implying that someone from far away from a city lacks culture or education; but it is also used humorously with no intent to offend, and sometimes as a positive name for oneself.^[10] In a 1965–70 survey the Dictionary of American Regional English found it widespread as a name for a rustic person, but especially frequent in the South Midland.^[9] In Glasgow rhyming slang hillbilly means "chilly".^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
10. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge