woolhat

woolhat

English

Etymology

wool +‎ hat

Noun

woolhat (plural woolhats)

1. (US) A yokel or redneck.
   • 1939, Shields McIlwaine, The southern poor-white from Lubberland to Tobacco Road

     From his "brass throat" poured such harangues of class hatred that his woolhat followers howled down opposing speakers and hurled clods at them.

   • 1964, K. B. Gilden, Hurry sundown: Volume 1

     We're woolhats, red necks, white trash, crackers, the scum of the earth, the filth under their feet.

   • 2002, Will D. Campbell, The Stem of Jesse: The Costs of Community at a 1960's Southern School

     While it is easy for the sophisticates of today to assume the objection to racial integration came only from uneducated woolhats...