Bumpkins were downgraded to 'country bumpkins' by Lord Chesterfield in 1774 when he made this observation:Ī country bumpkin is ashamed when he comes into good company. 'Bumpkin' was the accepted spelling by the 18th century, by which time the term just meant 'stupid fellow'. ( and were the good Baron Windsor living today he might want to have another go at that). May I not looke more lyke a bumking than the rest.
The next attempt, by Lord Windsor in 1658, went like this: The first example in print, by the lexicographer Peter Levens in his 1570 rhyming dictionary, is 'bunkin'.
Unsurprisingly, as the English at the time couldn't even spell English words with any consistency, there wasn't a consensus on how it should be spelled. The word came into English in the 16th century. The word is derived from either the Dutch 'boomken', meaning ‘little tree’ or 'bommekijn', meaning ‘little barrel’. Those horny-handed sons of the soil are variously called 'bumpkins', 'yokels', 'hicks' and 'hillbillies', and as you might imagine, these names didn't come out of the air, each has a derivation.Ī 'bumpkin' was originally the name that the English had for the Dutch, whom they portrayed as small, comic and tubby.
To put it bluntly, as far as city slickers are concerned, the countryside is where the thickos live. There are many words to indicate the dim-wittedness of rustics but few to suggest their intelligence. That is, unless you live in the countryside. There is another side to the coin - 'clever', 'intellectual', 'sharp', 'ingenious' etc. The speakers of English have a rich vocabulary to denote stupidity - 'inane', 'foolish', laughable', 'ridiculous', 'absurd', 'dumb'.
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