Dictionary

clodhopper en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈklɒdˌhɒpə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈklɑdˌhɑpɚ/ (General-American)

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.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:footwear) A strong shoe for heavy-duty use; a boot.
   • ...who had got on his "hill shoes," as he calls a pair of clodhoppers as thick as a ploughman's, and stuck round with nails. 1830, Margaret Hundy, “First Epistle from Mrs. Margaret Hundy”, in The Lady's Magazine:
2. (US, qualifier:footwear) Any shoe construed (within a particular context) as ungainly.
   • We had to walk slow because of his wooden clod-hoppers, and that was the way I wanted it now 1959, Claude F. Koch, A Matter of Family:
3. (qualifier:footwear, slang) United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.
   • Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard." 1943 August 16, “Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts”, in LIFE Magazine:
   • 'Nephew Jack,' he cried, looking at me when I was thinking what to say, and finding only emptiness, 'you are a heavy lout, sir; a bumpkin, a clodhopper; and I shall leave you nothing, unless it be my boots to grease.' 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “ch. 14”, in Lorna Doone:
   • […] now a book is no greater rarity than bacon and greens in Virginia; and the clodhopper of this country returns from his daily labours to a book […] 1719, René Le Bossu, translated by Pierre François le Courayer and Peter Anthony Motteux, Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem, J. Knapton and H. Clements, →OCLC, page 332:
4. (broadly, qualifier:footwear) To refer to generally big feet or the foot of a clumsy person.
5. (UK) A clumsy or foolish person.
   • All guess-work exploits shrivel up a good yard, or sometimes two, when brought to the measure, and the champion of the county dwindles into a clumsy clod-hopper. 1826 August, P.H. Clias, “Gymnastics”, in Blackwood's Magazine, volume XX, number CXV:
6. (derogatory, historical) A peasant or yokel (countryperson).
   • Near-synonyms: bumpkin, hick
7. (derogatory, historical, obsolete) A peasant or yokel (countryperson). ▸ A farmer or plowman.
8. Wheatear: any of various passerine birds.
   • ...and as the birds then begin to resort to the downs and open commons, the "fallow-chat," "wheat-ear," and "clodhopper," are not unappropriate names. 1834, Robert Mudie, The Feathered Tribes of the British Islands, volume 1:

Forms

Relateds

clodhopperish · hooves (shoe construed as ungainly)

Synonyms

clodknocker · hick · hick · bumpkin · bumpkin · oaf

Translations (12)

es ganso (clumsy person) · es zapatón (strong, heavy shoe) · de Bauerntölpel (clumsy person) · tr kıro (clumsy person) · de Scharrhans (clumsy person) · la pērō (strong, heavy shoe) · ga clabhta (clumsy person) · es paleto (clumsy person) · es patoso (clumsy person) · ga cábóg (clumsy person) · hu bakancs (strong, heavy shoe) · fr écrase-merde (strong, heavy shoe)