See query. I read today [cite gone] about big-shot actor who said that he (or somebody) was born “in a f*** holler in Kentucky”
I presume he was claiming humble beginnings, and that the word means shack of some kind.
Never heard of it; perhaps it’s in Faulkner and I don’t remember.
Anyone (even Yankees) heard of it?
I think the word is “hollow”, as in Sleepy Hollow. The accent makes it sound like holler.
Alternative spelling for definition 2 of “hollow”; a small valley.
(no Faulkner, just too much John Ringo)
Huh. I got it wrong then. So he is saying something particularly non-meaningful except for a geographical note not particularly specific (like “inner-city” as the euphemism goes today). I bet many a rich person was born in a valley.
Unless Southerners consider “born in a valley” to mean something distinctly social. Maybe some people say like that “you know, ‘hill folk’ [and we all know who they are.]”
Beatles reference? If so, don’t get it. 
Yep, “born in the valley” is like saying I was born in the backwoods.
Huh. Thanks.
Just realized that everybody, courtesy of Hollywood sitcom, if nothing else, knows the word “hillbilly.” Although what a “billy” is, and if that is a pejorative and a giveaway to the meaning, I have no idea.
If not, that means people born in the valleys and in the hills are clod-hoppers, and people in Kansas and Nebraska are as a group more sophisticated.
ETA: Just realized “clod-hoppers” can reasonably be applied to people who live on plains…
Which suggests: Hill people–not sure if valley people implies “white trash” (which I believe is also Southern originally): where is “clod-hopper” originally from?
A “holler” is just a small valley, sure–but it’s specifically a small valley in a very rural area. You’d never call a small valley in a mountain city a “holler.”
We drive past places labeled “hollow” or “holler” as we look for hiking trails. You don’t find many paved roads leading into hollers.
You’ve never watched The Beverly Hillbillies at all, have you?
I can imaginatively speculate why the holler would have been more backwoods than most. First, it’s clearly not the town. Then, these types of little valleys are often more thickly wooded because they’re generally associated with a small watercourse, like a “crick”, so trees grow a lot better. Finally, a small holler (being a thickly wooded valley) probably has less farmland, so them’s livin’ in the holler aren’t the more prosperous and respected kind of farmers.
Different Ringo. I found myself detectivin’ the meaning of “holler” as a geographical feature in the Southern US due to encountering it in one of his novels; IIRC, one where he lets rednecks play with antimatter.
Here’s a Steve Earl lyric to give you a sense of the word:
"You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
Before my time but I’ve been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road"
Linky boo-boo. Can you check and send it again?
Most of them.
Loretta Lynn was born in Butcher Holler KY
That’s a point. Mountain cities, although I only have visited Aspen, aren’t “sleepy.”
Small valley doesn’t do it justice though that’s what it is. It’s an indentation in a mountain side. They do come in different sizes. Some hollers are extremely steep and heavily wooded, others are less steep.
Here’s a link of a larger holler A Trip Up Wolf Pen Drive aka Wolf Pen Holler, Sissonville, West Virginia - YouTube
Here’s a link of a smaller one that’s not too steep https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/71999337.jpg
I’m a West Virginian from the Alleghenies and when someone says they’re from the holler, I usually take it to mean that they are local. I don’t think there is a positive or negative connotation to it. Generally, people wouldn’t say ‘I’m from the Holler’ since we have about ten billion of them, they’d say “I’m from Smoky Holler” or “I live up Spook Holler” (And actually, we don’t use ‘holler’, our accent is more like ‘hall-uh’ The ‘holler’ pronounciation is more southern and less mountain.
I grew up in a holler, and my parents still live there. I don’t see the word as applying to any old valley; when I say “holler” I mean a small road cutting off of the main road, running between two ridges, usually with people living there.
Exactly. You might think a small valley is big enough to hold a town or a hospital with a modern maternity ward. Nope. Think “tiny, extremely narrow valley with very steep sides.” I lived at the mouth of a hollow in West Virginia for a few years. The flat bottomland near the small stream was in the shape of a long narrow triangle. The mouth of the hollow near the road is only 250 feet wide, tapering to a point maybe a quarter or half mile back from the road. The two long sides of the triangle are bordered by steep ridges that rise abruptly to about 150 feet above the bottomland. It’s barely wide enough to hold a couple of houses and not nearly big enough to hold a hospital. A baby “born in a hollow” by implication was born at home.
