Editing Hoosier (section)

===Scholarship===
{{anchor|yokel}}
In 1900, [[Meredith Nicholson]] wrote ''The Hoosiers'', an early attempt to study the [[etymology]] of the word as applied to Indiana residents. [[Jacob Piatt Dunn]], longtime secretary of the [[Indiana Historical Society]], published ''The Word Hoosier'', a similar attempt, in 1907.<ref name=twh>{{cite web |url= http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/internet/extra/hoosier.html |title=The Word Hoosier |work=Indiana.edu |publisher=[[Indiana University Bloomington]] |access-date=March 17, 2012 |last=Graf |first=Jeffrey |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312231908/http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/internet/extra/hoosier.html |archive-date=2018-03-12 |date=November 1, 2000 |orig-year=Last revised: July 28, 2016 }}</ref> Both chronicled some of the popular and satirical etymologies circulating at the time and focused much of their attention on the use of the word in the [[Upland South]] to refer to woodsmen, yokels, and rough people. Dunn traced the word back to the [[Cumbrian dialect|Cumbrian]] {{lang|mis|hoozer}}, meaning anything unusually large, derived from the [[Old English]] ''hoo'' (as at [[Sutton Hoo]]), meaning "high" and "hill". The importance of immigrants from northern [[England]] and southern [[Scotland]] was reflected in numerous placenames including the [[Cumberland Mountains]], the [[Cumberland River]], and the [[Cumberland Gap]].<ref name=whatIsAHoosier /> Nicholson defended the people of Indiana against such an association, while Dunn concluded that the early settlers had adopted the nickname self-mockingly and that it had lost its negative associations by the time of Finley's poem.{{sfnp |Haller |2008 |p=6}}

Johnathan Clark Smith subsequently showed that Nicholson and Dunn's earliest sources within Indiana were mistaken. A letter by James Curtis cited by Dunn and others as the earliest known use of the term was actually written in 1846, not 1826. Similarly, the use of the term in an 1859 newspaper item quoting an 1827 diary entry by Sandford Cox was more likely an editorial comment and not from the original diary. Smith's earliest sources led him to argue that the word originated as a term along the [[Ohio River]] for [[flatboat]]men from Indiana and did not acquire its pejorative meanings until 1836, ''after'' Finley's poem.<ref name="smithNotSouthernScorn">{{cite magazine |url=http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/12270/18247 |title=Not Southern Scorn but Local Pride: The Origin of the Word Hoosier and Indiana's River Culture |last=Smith |first=Jonathan Clark |journal=[[Indiana Magazine of History]] |date=June 2007 |volume=103 |issue=2 |pages=183&ndash;194 |access-date=2015-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605160618/http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/12270/18247 |archive-date=2015-06-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{anchor|Harry Hoosier|Black Harry}}William Piersen, a history professor at [[Fisk University]], argued for a connection to the [[Methodist]] minister [[Reverend#Methodist|Rev]]. [[Harry Hosier]] ({{c.|lk=no|1750}}–May 1806), who evangelized the American frontier at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the [[Second Great Awakening]]. "Black Harry" had been born a slave in [[North Carolina]] and sold north to [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], before gaining his freedom and beginning his ministry around the end of the [[American Revolution]]. He was a close associate and personal friend of [[Bishop (Methodist)|Bishop]] [[Francis Asbury]], the "Father of the American Methodist Church". [[Benjamin Rush]] said of him that "making allowances for his illiteracy, he was the greatest orator in America".<ref name=blah>{{cite magazine |last=Webb |first=Stephen H. |url= http://dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/imh/printable/VAA4025-098-1-a02 |title=Introducing Black Harry Hoosier: The History Behind Indiana's Namesake |magazine=Indiana Magazine of History |volume=XCVIII |date=March 2002 |publisher=Trustees of Indiana University |access-date=October 17, 2013 }} {{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes |note=Try http://scholarworks.iu.edu which was used for another citation to the same magazine.}}</ref> His sermons called on Methodists to reject [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and to champion the common working man. Piersen proposed that Methodist communities inspired by his example took or were given a variant spelling of his name (possibly influenced by the "yokel" slang<ref name=blah/>) during the decades after his ministry.<ref name="piersenHarryHoosier">{{cite magazine |title=The Origin of the Word "Hoosier": A New Interpretation |last=Piersen |first=William D. |magazine=[[Indiana Magazine of History]] |date=June 1995 |volume=91 |issue=2}} Cited in: {{harvtxt|Graf|2000}}</ref>

According to Washington County newspaper reports of the time,{{when|source is from 1846, after earlier documented usage of Hoosier|Oct22|date=October 2022}} Abraham Stover was Colonel of the Indiana Militia. He was a colorful figure in early Washington County history. Along with his son-in-law, John B. Brough, he was considered one of the two strongest men in Washington County. He was always being challenged to prove his might, and seems to have won several fights over men half his age. After whipping six or eight men in a fist fight in Louisville, Kentucky, he cracked his fists and said, "Ain't I a husher",{{clarify|date=February 2019|reason=What is "husher" supposed to mean?}} which was changed in the news to "Hoosier", and thus originated the name of Hoosier in connection with Indiana men.<ref>''Salem Leader'' newspaper 1846 archive</ref>{{full citation needed|date=February 2019|reason=This isn't a source citation, it's a claim that sources exist somewhere and a refusal to actually cite them.  An archive cite is given with the |via= parameter in citation templates.}}<ref name="WashingtonGiants">{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Harvey |title=Washington County Giants, Indiana Historical Society Publications, Vol 7. No. 8 by Harvey Morris |date=1 December 1921 |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/6225 |access-date=28 January 2022 |language=en |archive-date=28 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128150648/https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/6225 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Jorge Santander Serrano, a PhD student from [[Indiana University Bloomington|Indiana University]], has also suggested that ''Hoosier'' might come from the [[French language|French]] words for 'redness', {{lang|fr|rougeur}}, or 'red-faced', {{lang|fr|rougeaud}}.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.idsnews.com/article/2016/11/its-a-rouguer-nation |title=Guest Column: It's a "rouguer" nation? The mystery behind Indiana's favorite nickname |work=Indiana Daily Student |publisher=Indiana University Student Media |access-date=November 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104020917/http://www.idsnews.com/article/2016/11/its-a-rouguer-nation |archive-date=November 4, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to this hypothesis, the early pejorative use of the word ''Hoosier'' may have a link to the color red ("rouge" in French) which is associated with [[indigenous peoples]], pejoratively called "red men" or "[[Redskin|red-skins]]", and also with poor white people by calling them "[[Redneck|red-necks]]".