southernism

English

Etymology

From southern +‎ -ism.

Noun

southernism (countable and uncountable, plural southernisms)

1. Anything characteristic of the southern part of a region, especially the southern United States.
   • 1954, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): House of Commons official report:

     It is one of the national peccadilloes that anyone who lives north of St. Albans has some kind of prejudice against Londoners — perhaps "prejudice" is the wrong word — or rather not against Londoners but against southernism.

2. A word or phrase (a dialectism) from Southern American English.
   • 1988 April 23, Cindy Patton, “Bob Andrews: A Life Celebration”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     I loved his languid, Southern speech and little southernisms, like "you can't put a sequin on a rat's ass."

   • 2015, Michael D. Picone, Catherine Evans Davies, New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches, University of Alabama Press, →ISBN, page 169:

     Many are known southernisms in the sense that they are also cited in sources such as Dictionary of American Regional English (henceforth, DARE) or Carver (1987).

Coordinate terms

• (dialectisms) dialectism; Americanism (Yankeeism, Yankism), Australianism, Britishism (anglicism, Briticism), Canadianism, Indianism, Irishism, Scotticism, southernism, New Zealandism

Related terms

• southernist

Anagrams

• mouthrinses