Could it be good?

[Sibbo]

Then someone is going to have to tell me what a ''Hoosier'' is unless it's someone who sells socks .

[Major Softie]

Then someone is going to have to tell me what a ''Hoosier'' is unless it's someone who sells socks .

It's someone from the State of Indiana. Their University also has The Hoosiers as their school mascot. I don't think anyone really knows where it comes from or what it means.

[Sibbo]

Thanks, surely there are some clues to the roots ?

[Rob]

Thanks, surely there are some clues to the roots ?

One of the most common beliefs is way back when, when someone would knock at the cabin door, the folks inside would say "who's there?", which slurred into "hoosier?"

Now, if you are really curious, here: http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/interne ... osier.html

It is also the name of a racing tire manufactured in Indiana, mostly for cars, but some folks get carried away:

[khittner1]

I lived my middle childhood years in Evansville, Indiana, where cross-river joking about the intellectual limitations of Kentuckians was normative. There was no similarly-dissing moniker for Kentuckians---"Kentuckian" seemed bad enough in my youth. Heck, among my Michigan in-laws, appending the syllable "-tucky" to any other place's name ("Michi-tucky" for some of our own state's less urbane locales) denotes that the so-labeled place is an unsophisticated backwater. So I'll buy IU-Librarian Graf's early summation:

The best evidence, however, suggests that "Hoosier" was a term of contempt and opprobrium common in the upland South and used to denote a rustic, a bumpkin, a countryman, a roughneck, a hick or an awkward, uncouth or unskilled fellow. Although the word's derogatory meaning has faded, it can still be heard in its original sense, albeit less frequently than its cousins "Cracker" and "Redneck."

From the South "Hoosier" moved north and westward with the people into the Ohio Valley, where it was applied at first to the presumably unsophisticated inhabitants of Southern Indiana.

[Sibbo]

I guess some of those areas have local folk history old enough for simple things like the roots of names to have just faded away .

[melville]

I lived my middle childhood years in Evansville, Indiana, where cross-river joking about the intellectual limitations of Kentuckians was normative. There was no similarly-dissing moniker for Kentuckians---"Kentuckian" seemed bad enough in my youth. Heck, among my Michigan in-laws, appending the syllable "-tucky" to any other place's name ("Michi-tucky" for some of our own state's less urbane locales) denotes that the so-labeled place is an unsophisticated backwater. So I'll buy IU-Librarian Graf's early summation:

The best evidence, however, suggests that "Hoosier" was a term of contempt and opprobrium common in the upland South and used to denote a rustic, a bumpkin, a countryman, a roughneck, a hick or an awkward, uncouth or unskilled fellow. Although the word's derogatory meaning has faded, it can still be heard in its original sense, albeit less frequently than its cousins "Cracker" and "Redneck."

From the South "Hoosier" moved north and westward with the people into the Ohio Valley, where it was applied at first to the presumably unsophisticated inhabitants of Southern Indiana.

And yet as much as we want to insult Kentucky, we must recognize that modern oral health started in Kentucky.

Clearly, if they had been invented anywhere else, they would be called 'teethbrush' and 'teethpaste.'

[Duane Ausherman]

From http://www.indianahistory.org/teachers- ... ed_knmFOcw

No one seems to know how the word “Hoosier” came to be. Some people think it was meant to mock Indiana as a rough, backwoods and backwards place. Others think that early settlers used the term with pride to describe themselves as a hearty, courageous group. One historian, Jacob Piatt Dunn, even suggested that the word “Hoosier” originally referred to boatmen who lived on the Indiana shore. We may never know for sure, but research and debate are likely to continue about this mysterious word.

[Sibbo]

Did they have America's first stocking factory ?

[Rob]

Did they have America's first stocking factory ?

I honestly doubt it. That would have probably been closer to the East coast.