redneck

Etymology

It is formed from English red + neck.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} For the slang senses, the OED thinks they may all have referred at first to the sunburnt skin of fair-skinned people, though it finds this reasonably certain only for the South African use.^[2] Etymonline and Hendrickson trace the American word to the necks of farm labourers reddened by working in the sun,^[3][7][8] and Etymonline mentions other theories, anger and pellagra.^[3] The first American record, from 1830, applies it to the Presbyterians of Fayetteville; the OED and DARE are unsure whether this is the same use as the later one,^[2][9] and the OED reports, without support, a suggestion that some Presbyterians wore red cloth around their necks.^[2] In South Africa redneck translated Afrikaans rooinek, which mocked the sunburnt necks of the English.^[2][10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The red-neck moth: 1773, in M. Harris's The Aurelian, a sense now obsolete.^[2][11] The slang sense is first found in 1830, in Anne Royall's Southern Tour, which says that "the Red Necks" was a name given to the Presbyterians in Fayetteville.^{[2][3][9][12]} Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dates the word to 1830,^[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1891 for the sense "a white member of the Southern rural laboring class",^[6] and Dictionary.com 1820–30.^[5]

Semantic evolution

By 1885 the word was listed with poor white trash and crackers as a name for the poor whites of the southern United States,^[12] and in 1904 a list of words from northwest Arkansas defined it as an uncouth countryman, setting the rednecks of the swamps against the hill-billies of the hills.^[12][3] Etymonline thinks it was not widely used in the US before about 1915.^[3] The meaning widened from a poor rural white southerner to anyone with narrow-minded, reactionary or bigoted views,^{[2][4][6][14]} and the adjective, recorded from 1938, means reactionary or bigoted.^[2] Separately, in northern England and parts of the US it was a derogatory name for a Roman Catholic or an Irish person, from 1852,^[2][12] and in South Africa from 1896 a name for an Englishman.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1773 – the red-neck moth (obsolete by 1827).^[2][11]
• 1830 – a name for the Presbyterians of Fayetteville, the first record of the slang use.^[2][3][9]
• 1852 – a Roman Catholic, or an Irish person (northern English and US regional).^[2]
• 1872 – a European rove beetle (obsolete).^[2]
• 1885 – a poor white person of the southern US.^[12]
• 1896 – in South Africa, an Englishman.^[2] Etymonline dates this use to about 1894.^[2][3]
• 1904 – an uncouth countryman, in a list of Arkansas words.^[12][3]
• 1907 – red-necked, as an adjective of a farmer.^[12]
• 1938 – adjective, characteristic of a redneck; reactionary, bigoted.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (offensive slang, usually derogatory) A white member of the rural working class of the southern United States, especially one regarded as poorly educated.^{[14][6][2][15]}
2. (offensive slang, often derogatory) A person regarded as narrow-minded, conservative or bigoted, or as behaving like such a person.^{[14][6][4][16]}
3. (South African, usually derogatory, now obsolescent) An English person; a rooinek.^[2][10]
4. (regional, derogatory) A Roman Catholic, or an Irish person.^[2][12]

Adjective

1. (often derogatory) Of, relating to or typical of a redneck; reactionary or bigoted: redneck politics.^[6][2][16]

Related words

• red
• neck
• rooinek
• red-necked

Usage notes

Dictionaries mark the word as insulting: the American Heritage Dictionary labels it "offensive slang",^[14] the OED "usually derogatory",^[2] the Concise Oxford and Chambers "derogatory",^[15][16] and Merriam-Webster "sometimes" or "often disparaging" according to the sense.^[6] Dictionary.com notes that every sense is used with disparaging intent, implying ignorance and narrow-mindedness.^[5] Green's Dictionary of Slang notes that, strictly, rednecks came from swampy areas and hillbillies from the mountains.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
8. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c 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 A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za
11. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap