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A Hoosier /ˈhu.ʒɚ/is a native of the U.S. state of Indiana. The term is commonly accepted and employed at all levels of discourse by people from Indiana themselves, and is considered neither derogatory nor informal when used to describe people from Indiana. However, it is embraced more enthusiastically in the southern half of the state, reflecting the likely origin of the word from Appalachian heritage. Deriving from common usage, "Hoosiers" is the nickname for Indiana University athletic teams, and the title of an award-winning 1986 movie starring Gene Hackman, about an Indiana high school basketball team.

Contents 1 Root etymology of the word Hoosier 2 How Indiana became Hoosier 3 First public identifications of Hoosier with Indiana 4 Debates about origin of link with Indiana 5 Some folkloric etymologies 5.1 Frontier banter 5.2 Pugilistic boatmen 5.3 Mr. Hoosier's men 5.4 Hussars 6 Other uses 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

The root etymology of “Hoosier” is uncertain although it is believed to have Anglo-Saxon roots. Several early researchers cite Dickenson (1899): “hoozer—said of anything unusually large.” Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Indiana historian and secretary of the Indiana Historical Society (1907) favored this explanation in his early scholarly work on the subject. Further, he speculated that “hoozer” derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "hoo" meaning high or hill. He pointed out that immigrants from Cumberland, England settled in the Southern Appalachians and then migrated to the southern hills of Indiana, possibly bringing the term with them.

Dictionaries tend to accept the "hoozer" origin or take no definitive position about root etymology.

Although the linguistic etymology is murky, its historical attachment to Indiana is rather well documented. In colonial America, the terms “cracker” and “hoosier” were widely used to refer to white farmers who did not own slaves or large plantations. Because the best agricultural land, the flat land near the rivers and seacoast, was generally used for growing cash crops in large plantations, small farms--usually in the hills and mountains--were identified with subsistence farming, and these farmers were typically poor and uneducated. Linguistic maps of the southern states indicate that cracker was used more often in the coastal areas of Virginia and North Carolina and in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida while hoosier was predominant in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina (McDavid & McDavid, 1973).

The southern half of Indiana was settled first, beginning along the Ohio River, and the earliest settlers came largely from the Appalachian region, particularly Virginia and North Carolina, often by way of Kentucky (Hudson, 1988). By the early 1800s "hoosier" was widely used in Indiana to refer to poor farmers or uneducated, uncouth people in general.

Although the term (with variant spellings of “hoodger,” “hoozer,” “hoozher,” and “hoosher”) appeared in letters and journals earlier, its first appearance in print was on January 1, 1833 in the form of John Finley’s poem “The Hoosier’s Nest,” published in the Indianapolis Journal. The poem seems to have been instrumental in popularizing the term. For example, later that year the Indiana Democrat published a prospectus for a new newspaper to be known as The Hoosier, indicating that the name had gained widespread appeal already by then.

This was a period when the Midwestern territories were being settled, with each seeking an identity. Part of the identity process was finding a name that captured the gestalt of the people and place; this is when Wisconsinites became Badgers, Michiganders Wolverines, Ohioans Buckeyes, and the like. In the process, negative connotations were downplayed and positive ones advanced. This sort of linguistic elevation has happened frequently with the nicknames of groups, e.g. Yankees, Whigs, Methodists, and Quakers, which began as slurs but lost their sting when embraced by those so labeled (Withington, 1930).

Almost as soon as it gained popularity as a label for Indiana people debates began about its origin and meaning. The most exhaustive study of the term “hoosier” (Dunn, 1907) was carried out when many participants in these formative times were still alive and able to give their recollections. Dunn reports that many of the folk etymologies still circulating in the 20th century were already in the air in 1833. He examines and discredits them as serious propositions.

A more recent scholarly tracing of the history of this term by lexicographer H.L. Mencken (1948) recounts many of the same stories (combative boatmen “hushers,” “Who’s here?,” “Whose ear?,” and “Huzzah!”) and, like Dunn, dismisses them as “moonshine” and “folk etymology at its worst.”

This idea suggests the term was a greeting. When approaching a man's home in those early frontier days, you shouted from afar, "Hello, the cabin!" to avoid being shot. The inhabitants would then shout back "Who'sh 'ere?" (who's there). As it got slurred together over time, the country folk came to be called Hoosiers.

A variant of this story combines "Who's" and "your", such as in "Who'sh yer 'pa?". Additionally, the poet James Whitcomb Riley facetiously suggested that the fierce brawling that took place in Indiana involved enough ear biting that the expression "Whose ear?" was common enough to be notable.

These stories are dismissed out of hand by serious linguistic scholars.

Indiana rivermen were so spectacularly successful in trouncing or "hushing" their adversaries in the brawling that was then common that they became known as "hushers."

Like the above examples, this explanation is considered unlikely by scholars.

The term "Hoosier" originates from the 1860's when the farmers almanac was taking a national census and would knock on doors. They noticed that Indiana natives would shout "HOOSIER" instead of "Who's there?" From this the nickname is derived.

A contractor reportedly named Samuel Hoosier preferred to hire workers from Indiana during the construction of the Louisville and Portland Canal (1826-1831) in Louisville. His employees became known as "Hoosier's men" and finally just "Hoosiers."

This story is reported by Dunn (1907:16-17) as being told in 1901 by a man who heard this story from a Hoosier family member while traveling in southern Tennessee. However, Dunn’s research could find no-one in southern Tennessee who had heard the story, nor could he find any family of that name in any directory in the region. In spite of Dunn’s skepticism, this version has been accepted by Evan Bayh, who has served as Indiana governor and senator, and by Senator Vance Hartke, who introduced this story into the Congressional Record (1975), according to Graf.

A similar story involves the National Road, which began in Cumberland , Maryland, and slowly extended westward, reaching Indiana in 1829-1834. As plans were made to extend the highway to Richmond, Indiana, the call went out for laborers. Knowing that the federal government would pay "top dollar," the employees of a contractor in the Indiana Territory reportedly named Robert Hoosier asked their boss if they could go work for this higher wage in the neighboring state of Ohio. Mr. Hoosier gave his consent, asking them to return to work for him when this section of the road was done.

Just as in the Sam Hoosier story, the crew of Indiana workers proved to be industrious, conscientious, and efficient. The Federal foreman referred to the group as "Hoosiers" meaning they were workers that Robert Hoosier had allowed to join the national work crew. It wasn't long before people along the National Road used the term to describe the folks living in the territory to the west.

This story is not mentioned in Dunn’s or Mencken’s research, but if there were such a contractor and such events, they would have taken place after the term “Hoosier” was already well established in Appalachia and was becoming attached to Indiana.

In this story, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, Col. John Jacob Lehmanowsky, settled in Indiana later in life and gave lectures on the “Wars of Europe” in which he extolled the virtues of the hussars, which his audience heard as “hoosiers.” Young men wishing to identify with these virtues called themselves Hoosiers, enough of them that eventually all Indianans were called Hoosiers.

Weaknesses of this story include the unlikely mispronunciation of hussar as Hoosier and the fact that Lehmanowsky did not come to Indiana until 1833, by which time the term was already well established.

"Hoosier" was also a brand name used by the Hoosier Manufacturing Company, and refers particularly to its kitchen cabinets, which are collectible antiques. The company also made tables and chairs. This furniture is much sought after in the antique world. Little is known about this furniture company, other than that it was based in New Castle, Indiana, between 1903 and 1935.

Other Indiana businesses use Hoosier in the name of their company: 1) Hoosier Racing Tire Corporation, manufacturer of racing tires; and 2) Hoosier Bat Company, manufacturer of wood baseball bats.

Indiana native Kurt Vonnegut presents Hoosiers as an example of a granfalloon ("a proud and meaningless association of human beings") in his 1963 novel Cat's Cradle.

In Missouri, it is considered a derogatory term referring to an unsophisticated rural person who has recently moved to a city.

• Dickenson, W. (1899). A Glossary of Words and Phrases pertaining to the Dialect of Cumberland
• Dunn, J. P. (1907). The Word Hoosier. Indiana Historical Society Publications, Vol. IV, No. 2. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
• ^ Graf, J. The Word Hoosier. Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington
• Hartke, V. (1975). Hoosiers Wear Name with Pride. Congressional Record Vol. 121, part 15. 94th Congress. Senate. June 16, 1975.
• Hudson, J.C. (1988). North American Origins of Middlewestern Frontier Populations, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78(3), 1988, pp. 395-413.
• McDavid, R.I. & McDavid, V. (June 1973). Cracker and Hoosier, Names: Journal of the American Name Society 21:2, 161-167.
• Mencken, H.L. (1948). The American Language. An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States. Supplement II.
• Withington, R. (Feb. 1930). Rehabilitated Words: Notes for a Chapter on ‘Regeneration of Meaning,” American Speech 5:3, pp. 212-218.

• Hoosier Hysteria

• Article on the name "Hoosier" from the Indiana University Alumni Association
• Dictionary.com/Hoosier
• Article: The Humble Hoosier
• Hoosier Racing Tires
• Hoosier National Forest "What is a 'Hoosier'" Web page
• Article: Explanation of "Hoosiers" by Dave Barry