Date:  Wed, 15 Oct 1997 13:11:03 -0600
From:  charles fritz juengling <cjuengling[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]STCLOUDSTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Etymology of _Hoosier_

>Mitford Mathews cracked this etymological nut on page 830 of his
>_Dictionary of Americanisms_, wherein he indicates its most probable
>source as _hoozer, "very large" in the dialect of Cumberland, northern
>England.
>
>DARE attests the term quite widely and early outside Indiana. Indeed,
>until the mid-20th century, mountaineers in Tennessee and North Carolina
>were called _hoosiers_. How the term has come to be associated with
>Indianans is a more recent but intriguing story.
>
>Michael Montgomery
>Dept of English
>Univ of South Carolina
>Columbia SC 29208

My favorite explanation appeares in Schele de Vere's _Americanisms_. He
reports that "Hoosier" came about because of the way people there
(Indiana) said "Who's here?"

Fritz Juengling
Dept of Foreign Languages
St Cloud State University
Minnesota

Fritz Juengling
Foreign Languages and Literature Department
St. Cloud State University