clodhopper

Meanings

1. A strong shoe for heavy-duty use; a boot.
2. Any shoe construed (within a particular context) as ungainly.
3. United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.
4. To refer to generally big feet or the foot of a clumsy person.
5. A clumsy or foolish person.
6. A peasant or yokel (countryperson).
7. A farmer or plowman.
8. Wheatear: any of various passerine birds.

Etymology

Compound of clod + hopper (agentive form of the verb hop). Perhaps affected by analogy with grasshopper. The term originated in the 17th century as a derogatory name for a farm laborer—someone who "hopped" (stomped) over "clods" of earth; attested in the sense of "peasant" since the seventeenth century; the extended sense of "boot" or "shoe" dates from the nineteenth century. While originating in Britain, the term survives most strongly in Southern/Appalachian speech.

Translations