In Francophone Africa they’d be villageois, the village being as much a state of mind as a physical place.
We’ve had contributions from Canada, from France, so here’s the French-Canadian version:
Habitant. litt. an inhabitant, one who inhabits the country-side.
The pejorative aspect is debatable, however, since there was such a long period of French-Canadian culture where the church glorified rural agricultural life as morally superior as it was apart from the sinful cities, and reprehensible practises of commerce, business and finance. For a long time it could be synonymous with French-Canadian (as opposed to English Canadians in Quebec), esp. before 1950 or so.
As more and more French-Canadians moved to the cities and engaged in commerce & business, it lost it’s association with all French-Canadians and came to refer more to those who remained rural.
Although it can be used as an insult, it can also be used with pride, depending on one’s perspective, so the meaning is dependent on context.
Interestingly, the H in the logo of the Montreal Canadiens NHL team stands for Habitants, and the teams is often affectionately referred to as the “Habs” In the history of Hockey, the Canadians were the team that represented the French-Canadians, while the *eeevil *oppressing English bourgeoisie was represented by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Other Quebec dopers, feel free to chip in.
That’s really an old term, I don’t hear it at all today. And I don’t believe it has a pejorative connotation either. I can’t think of any exact equivalent to “redneck” in Canadian French. Maybe “colon” (colonist), which is pejorative but connotates stupidity or naivety more than a rural lack of sophistication, despite the term’s probable origin. Not an exact match, but it’s the closest I’ve been able to find.
But honestly, if I wanted to talk about rednecks, I’d probably just use “redneck”, even when speaking French.
No it does not, it stands for “hockey”, as in “Club de hockey canadien”. You may have noticed them using this related design last season, to celebrate their 100th anniversary. It stands for “Club athlétique canadien”.
Sliding off-topic, my cousin referred to the young lads who’d motor into his yard to converse with his pubescent daughters “gunnits”, due to their vrooming habits.
‘swede-bashers’ or ‘carrot-crunchers’.
‘Redneck’ in the sense of ‘country-dweller with socially conservative/extreme right-wing views’ does not really fly here.
Hibernicus has already mentioned culchies, but in Ireland we also have bogtrotters. We use redneck too.
I’d say they’d all be considered moderately offensive.
I notice I’ve been beaten to the punch for the Australian one of Bogan.
However I’ve also always enjoyed a more regional version, which I understand is restricted to Queensland which is a Bevan.
Both of these terms though are closer I think to the trailer-trash theme, far more so than a ‘redneck’. I may be wrong, but doesn’t redneck have connotations of backwoods rural sort of person?
Both Bogan and Bevan are very much urban-dwellers.
Redneck has a connotation or racist, backWARD* kind of person.
Bogan/Bevan is, as you pointed out, like trailer-trash (in da US). It is more a reference to people from poorer metro “satelite” cities.
Plus we have many other inventive words for stupid half-witted people. Such as the Aussie drongo.
*I’m not correcting you, I’m just pointing out that I did in fact mean to write ‘backward’, as opposed to ‘backwood’.
In Venezuela we have the word “campesino” (of the fields, farmer) which is never taken as derogatory. There is also “campuruso” (which is a variation of “campesino” but with a derogatory termination) which is always derogatory. So it is easy to know whether you are being insulting or not.
As Karl said, in Puerto Rico it is not as clear since “jibaro” can be used affectionately or insultingly and it is context that makes the difference.
Yeah, “naco” is a closer fit to “redneck” than most other terms I can think of.
There’s also “indio” literally meaning “indian” and generally is used to signify lack of sophistication. It comes from the long history of the mistreatment of native Mexicans from the more mestizo populace.
In Spain other words that are derogatory indicating an utter lack of culture and manners are names of different “barbarian” groups: vándalo, bárbaro, mameluco or the cafre that sailor mentioned… but they normally carry connotations of physical violence.
In slovenian that would be kmetavzar (peasant, despicably) or rovtar (someone from small, unknown and distant village).
Also ‘boggers’ and ‘bogmonsters’. I’d say ‘bogmonster’ is the most insulting - the rest can be used to insult someone simply on the basis of where he comes from, but ‘bogmonster’ implies that this specific person is wayyyyy off at one end of the spectrum of sheep-shagging, inbred, semi-intelligible, three-mile-radius, potato-bound, priest-worshipping redneckhood. Anyone from, say, rural Mayo can be called a culchie; only someone who’s actively afraid of pasta and buses really counts as a bogmonster.
In Northern Ireland we use the terms ‘culchie’ which i think refers to agriculture.
We also use the term ‘Hillbilly’ which is where the word originates. The first recorded usage of the word hillbilly was in the 1680’s by the catholic King James II in ireland. he used the word to refer to the supporters of the protestant King William III in the North of Ireland. Those people were the Scots-Irish, the name followed them to America.
P.S. Also, another vote for ‘nekulturny’ being pre-Soviet - my mother’s side of the family got booted out of Russia during the Revolution, and we use it as a fairly major put-down. I also agree that it doesn’t necessarily imply ruralness, though. Just ignorance and vulgarity.
I belive nekulturny (nekulturen in my language) has something diffrent conotation than simple being redneck. Let me explain:
If I went to champagne reception in my jogging clothes on purpose (as - I know it is champagne reception and don’t give a crap)… nekulturny
If I went to champagne reception in my jogging clothes as per se. (as - Ah look cool free sparking alcohol and where is roasted swine?)… redneck
Do you have a cite for that? Etymonline says the following:
“southern Appalachian resident,” c.1900, from hill + masc. proper name Billy/Billie. As a type of folk music, first attested 1924.
“In short, a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires of his revolver as the fancy takes him.” [“New York Journal,” April 23, 1900]
I’m not positive about this one, as I could be mistaken and remembering differently, but I believe colloquially in Germany, the name Eberhard, is synonomyous with a redneck. It’s used much like Cletus, or Billie Bob, or Bubba. It infers a ‘redneck’ by its usage.
Der Eberhard (Boar’s Heart)
In Dutch:
Boer (should be self-explanatory)
or provinciaal: from the province, or more precise: not from Amsterdam.
My word for that description is “Family.”