clodhopper
/ˈklɑdˌhɑpɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.08 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A strong shoe for heavy-duty use; a boot.
Example Sentences
- "...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."
- "We had to walk slow because of his wooden clod-hoppers, and that was the way I wanted it now"
- "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.""
- "[…] 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 […]"
- "'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.'"
- "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."
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.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈklɑdˌhɑpɚ/
- British English: /ˈklɒdˌhɒpə/
Usage
- American usage
- Slang
- British usage
- Derogatory
- Obsolete