Hoosier Daddy?

[Karallen]

Where in the wide world of sports does the term “Hoosier” come from?

[Ringo]

From Merriam-Webster’s Word for the Wise:

On yesterday’s program we talked about various theories of how a native of Indiana came to be known as a Hoosier, and we ended with what we believe is the most plausible explanation: Hoosier may be an alteration of the English dialect word hoozer, meaning “anything large of its kind.”

And,…

Perhaps the designation arose from the same sort of tall-talk that spawned the ten-gallon hat out West. But what is larger than life is sometimes considered ungainly, and it may be that the Hoosier nickname was pejorative when it was first hung on Indianans.

[kniz]

Take your pick.

[smiling_bandit]

Hoosiers are Hoosiers. We remain Hoosiers whereever we go. No matter why, a Hoosier doesn’t ask why he (or she) is a Hoosier, for a Hoosier is.

This has been your moment of Zen, brought to you by a Hoosier.

“Zen Rurality”

[samclem]

…we ended with what we believe is the most plausible explanation: Hoosier may be an alteration of the English dialect word hoozer, meaning “anything large of its kind.”

Well, M-W has been know to be rather behind the times.

I quote from JE Lighter, Random House Dictionary of Historical American Slang, whom I would trust before M-W.

origin unknown.; the most cogent discussion remains that of J.P. Dunn, Indiana and Indianians, II (1919), pp. 1121-55, but his conclusion that the origin lies in BrE.(Cumberland) dialect hoozer …is made dubious by the poor degree of attestation of hoozer(in a single word list of 1899) and the absence of any US quotes in a clearly parallel sense.

So don’t accept the English(Cumberland) derivation just because it might be championed by M-W.

[tomndebb]

For The Word Detective, Hoosier derives from early 19th century American slang, husher, a bully–especially one associated with the rafters/bargemen on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The Word Detective later defended himself against a lame folk etymology.

The Indiana Historical Society lists several possible origins. One may infer their preferences from the manner of presentation, but they are actually careful not to specifically declare for one etymology over another.

This site basically repeats the information from the Indiana Historical Society site (nudging the theory toward a Southern name for a rube), but also provides some of the earliest citations of use.

At the bottom of the Monroe County (Indiana) Library page is a quick list of the more popular explanations, plus an additional “newly discovered” theory that the word hoosier as a term of Southern contempt was aimed at an itenerant black Abolitionist preacher. (I’d want to see a lot more information on this before I accepted it–for one thing, the early dates and spellings do not seem consistent.)

John Russel Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms, published in 1849, relates a story in which an Indiana boatman, (but one whose original tongue was not English), fought several men simultaneously, vanquishing them, then leapt up and declared (with an accent) “I’m a hoosier” [husher, as noted in earlier explanations]. When the New Orleans papers reported on the incident, they picked up the name and applied it to all the Indiana boatmen.

This story has the double strength of being fairly old and supporting the “husher” theory. Of course, it is also possible that it is the source of the “husher” theory.