It so happened that the meaning of the word "redneck", despite its frequent use both in colloquial speech and in literature, is far from everyone knows. However, it mostly causes negative associations, as it is associated with a rude, ignorant, greedy person. What is the meaning of the word redneck in a dictionary? This will be discussed below.
Colloquial word
As a rule, dictionaries give several interpretations of the word being studied, which are quite close to each other, but still differ in some shades of meaning. Two of them are marked “vernacular”.
In the first case, the meaning of the word "redneck" is a derogatory option that describes a person to whom such epithets as dull, rude, uncultured, illiterate, primitive, ill-bred, arrogant can be applied.
The second colloquial version is accompanied by a note “contemptuous” and speaks of a stingy, very greedy person.
Crime jargon
Two other interpretations of the studied lexeme belong to the field of criminal jargon.
The first such meaning of the word "redneck" is associated with a large, physically healthy person with high stature, remarkable strength, bodybuilding, bodybuilding.
The second interpretation refers to a person who is not a member of a thieves' company, that is, to an outsider.
Further, to better understand the interpretation of the word, you should consider examples of its use.
Examples of offers
As such, the following can be cited.
- You can imagine this picture: you are sitting in an ambush at night, preparing to attack someone, you think that no one is hearing or seeing you, and at that moment you are presented with a healthy redneck with an animal grin on its face, with pound fists, with a clasped knife in his teeth, while in his eyes it is clearly read that he wants not just to kill you, but to rub it into powder.
- A long cry for help came from the car, onto which a steamed redneck, dressed in a blue knit suit, ran out of the doors leading to the martial arts club.
- The head of the station tried to build himself into an intellectual, all led some kind of philosophical reasoning, but in fact was such a goon that all subordinates moaned from.
- It is unclear how these people could converge with each other: one is an educated, purposeful, polite person, while the other is a real goon, dumb, greedy and aggressive.
- After watching such a film, even a thick-skinned redneck, who accidentally got into the cinema, somehow spreads his face and drowns his soul.
- “If he were a redneck, he would not have given you such expensive gifts as dresses and jewelry,” Elena explained to her inexperienced friend.
Next, words that are close in meaning to the subject will be examined.
Synonyms
These include such as:
- redneck;
- insolent person;
- rude;
- boor;
- ignoramus;
- ignorant;
- greedy;
- lived;
- the jade
- a crook;
- curcule;
- miser;
- miser;
- scared;
- miser;
- pitching;
- cupboard;
- ambal;
- wood;
- a healthy man;
- club.
Since the word has several shades of interpretation, if you wish, you can pick up a fairly large number of synonyms.
For a better understanding of the meaning of the word "redneck" it would be advisable to turn to its etymology.
Origin
According to researchers, the lexeme under study goes back to the Polish noun żłób, which is used in the Polish language both literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, it is a "gutter", "feeding trough", and in a figurative sense it means "block", "booby."
Like the Russian noun “gutter”, the Polish żłób is rooted in the Proto-Slavic language, where there is the noun želb in the same meaning. The studied linguistic object appears colloquially, being taken from criminal jargon.
If someone wants to track down the meaning of the word “redneck” according to Dahl, then he will find that this token is absent in his explanatory dictionary. This is due to the fact that it appears in Russian around the beginning of the 20th century.