boor

boor, churl, lout, clown, clodhopper, bumpkin, hick, yokel, rube are comparable when meaning an uncouth, ungainly fellow. Most of these words may be applied to rustics, but they tend increasingly to imply reference to breeding, manners, and appearance rather than to origin or social status. The same distinctions in connotations and implications are apparent in the adjectives derived from the first four of these nouns, boorish, churlish, loutish, clownish.

Boor implies an opposition to gentleman, especially in respect to characteristics indicative of good breeding and fineness of feeling. As a rule boor and boorish imply variously rudeness of manner, insensitiveness, lack of ceremony, or unwillingness to be agreeable in the presence of others

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love makes gentlemen even of boors, whether noble or villain— Henry Adams

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to the European mind, with all its goodwill, the very things that make us more powerful make us also more boorish— Lemer

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Churl may suggest low birth or social status but more often ill-bred surly meanness of expression or attitude. The latter implication is far more common in the adjective churlish, which characteristically implies surliness, irresponsiveness, or ungraciousness

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warns all whom it concerns, from King to churl— John Morley

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by what magic wasMt that this divine sweet creature could be allied with that old churl— Meredith

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they object to the dairymaids and men crossing the elm vista .... It seems churlish— Shaw

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Lout and loutish apply especially to hulky youths or men without regard to origin and usually suggest stupidity, clumsiness, and sometimes, abjectness of bearing or demeanor. Both words are terms of contempt frequently applied to idlers or loafers of particularly unprepossessing appearance

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it was inevitable that the older boys should become mischievous louts; they bullied and tormented and corrupted the younger boys because there was nothing else to do— H. G. Wells

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Clown and clownish come close to lout and loutish in connotation. Instead of stupidity, however, the terms often connote ignorance or simplicity and instead of hulkiness they suggest the ungainliness of a person whose body and movements reveal hard plodding labor

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the clown, the child of nature, without guile— Cowper

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When used in reference to those who are not countrymen the terms still imply general uncouthness and awkwardness and often, by association with the other sense of clown, a propensity for absurd antics

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he was the sort of boy that becomes a clown and a lout as soon as he is not understood, or feels himself held cheap— D. H. Lawrence

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Clodhopper distinctively suggests the frame and the heavy movements generally associated with plowmen but is not restricted in application to rustics

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though honest and active they're most unattractive and awkward as awkward can be—can be. They're clumsy clodhoppers— Gilbert

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Bumpkin implies a loutishness suggestive of unfamiliarity with city ways and manners

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bashful country bumpkins— Irving

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Hick comes close to bumpkin and suggests the unsophisticated simple rustic

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hicks of the hinterlands mistrusting city politicians

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Yokel and rube more particularly suggest a rustic lack of polish or an obtuse gullibility

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his mouth was agape in yokel fashion— Crane

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always a new crop of rubes waiting to be tricked out of their money

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Antonyms: gentleman