The origin of the word REDNECK

[nadinbrzezinski]

so the other day I was channel surfing and I stumbled on a program in the coal miner struggle in the 1920s on the history channel

It was late at night... and I went... you are not doing Nazis now, Nazis all the time

So I kept the channel

Well I don't remember the specifics, nor the name of the labor leader, but they marched on non-union territory to unionize other workers and they tied red handkerchiefs around their necks, they were rednecks

Then I thought about it, before I went to sleep... we have a word that originally meant proud labor member and allowed it be transfered into a hinterland hick

Think of this as an exercise in framing...

And what does that tell you about labor... and hinterland hick?

[TlalocW]

1. That's one explanation

However, etymologists believe that it might have developed differently and independently in America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck

I recently had to explain rednecks to an IM friend in Lima, Peru, who is taking an English class. I told her to go up to her teacher and tell him, "We need to learn about rednecks who have mullet hairdos." She did, and it confused the professor, and she decided to write an oral report on rednecks and mullets with my help.

TlalocW

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Thanks always happy to learn

For me it was a moment of... history channel running something on the history of labor?

Thanks

Will read it tomorrow

[melody]

3. Depends upon whom you ask

I lean toward the theory one hears most from the people -- that it comes from the Scots-Irish tendency for their skin to get red while they are working in the sun. Hence, rednecks.

Some people think it is a carry-over from "red" Ulster and William of Orange, and the scarf theory gets knocked around a little, too. It's more likely a UK transplant to the US south since so many southerners came from there without take port outside the region.

[progdonkey]

4. also, "red" means both Communist and Republican...

Just because two things have the same name doesn't mean they have anything in common (though, Communists and Republicans certainly have a proclivity towards totalitarianism ;-) ).

I wasn't aware of this particular meaning of redneck, but it seems pretty clear it's just a coincidence and has nothing to do with the redneck of "you might be a redneck," etc.

[Rhythm and Blue]

11. Red being a Republican color only dates from 2000, actually,

Not sure if you knew that, but regardless, this is a pretty interesting read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states

[tuckessee]

5. You're probably referring to the Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia 1921

More hidden history.

http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/92.4/br_77.html

http://www.pawv.org/news/blairhist.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yeah that one

thanks

I was amazed they were running it on the History Channel.. it was kind of... ok guys the old stand byies are old?

[Devlzown]

6. I think it had more to do with farming.

All my grandparents grew up on cotton farms and they told me how they covered up and wore hats before they went out into the fields. They were afraid of looking like rednecks. They did not at all understand why people went to the beach to get a tan. We didn't tell them the stories about the people who go to the tanning booths. That would have been too much for them.

[kineneb]

8. don't know about the origin of the word

all I know is my Dad's family is full of them...
so I know them when I meet them...


maybe it has something to do with Dad and Grandfather being from Del Rio, TX... dunno...


Mom dumped him soon enough, though... still don't know what to think about upper-class Persian (Step-father), even after all these years... different culture, for sure...

[Rhythm and Blue]

9. Not so much.

From etymonline: most likely from mule farmers' outdoors labor in the sun, wearing a shirt and straw hat, with the neck exposed. While the mine clashes are a nice story, the word is attested from 1830 (80 years before the red bandanas in question).

[XOKCowboy]

10. I know a lot of rednecks that are hard core union members and staunchly Anti-Bush

Yes they are self-proclaimed rednecks (in the modern usage of the word). They own guns, they hunt, they drink beer and dip Copenhagen, are hardcore NASCAR fans, drive pickups with gun racks, the whole schmeer. They also all Union Pipeliners, Pipefitters, Boilermakers, Laborers, Carpenters, Electricians and Operators. They all recognize that this president is a crook and is breaking the back of the middle class.

OK so not all rednecks are like this. My point is that stereotyping is never a good thing and that even some rednecks know when they're being screwed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I posted this to point out how the term has changed

in the etymology I saw in the program it was union members, your friends fit it to a T

As I have leanred tonight, the etymology goes even father

But think of popular media representations

You will see the gun rack, but not the union label if you get meaning

The FRAME of the language has been changed, and I'd say on purpose

[Rhythm and Blue]

17. The term hasn't changed at all.

Well, I mean, it has slightly. Originally it only referred to a few indentured farmers in pennsylvania, and later was expanded to poor farmers of all sorts, and later to all hicks.

It has nothing to do with union members at all. The word was first seen nearly a century before the mine clashes, and was in common use 30 years before them. The red bandanas are totally unrelated to the origin of the word. The miners may have adopted the term "redneck" perhaps as an amusing bit of irony, but that was never its primary sense.

[Perseid]

12. glad you learned

redneck refers to people, like my family, who have worked the friggin

earth for generations.

simple answer. god damn.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Or in this case mined it

As I said, what amazed is how the word has been transfored

I could use the word gay for another incredible transformation

In the 1920s it meant happy... we know it doesn't mean that today, don't we

And perhaps we need to fight to RECOVER langusge to that original meaning. In a way fight back

[Rhythm and Blue]

14. The thing is, the word pre-dates the mine clashes by over 80 years.

It's just not a credible theory.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=redneck&searchmode=none

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Happy to learn

:-)