Hick
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Hick (or country hick) is a derisive term for a person from a rural area.
Popular etymology says the term derives from hickory, and first applied to rural school teachers who continued to punish their charges with hickory sticks long after progressive urban school districts had banned or at least seriously restricted corporal punishment. The Oxford English Dictionary says it was "by-form" of the personal name Richard (like Dick) and Hob (like Bob) for Robert.
"Hicks" have sometimes been seen, and often been portrayed in popular media, as easy marks for sophisticated urbanites. However, at times this can be turned to the advantage of an apparent hick who is more sophisticated than he appears, which is a frequent basis for a confidence game operation.
A famous usage of the term comes from the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy which features the Variety headline "STIX NIX HIX PIX", which was a story about how movies portarying rural-dwellers as hicks were, unsurprisingly, unpopular in such areas ("the sticks"). Stereotypes of hicks in the popular mind are often derived from such motion pictures as The Egg and I, featuring the first screen appearance of the hick characters Ma and Pa Kettle. The Beverly Hillbillies were television hicks, although many feel that they, particularly Granny, often in the final analysis got the better of their nemesis, Mrs. Drysdale, and were more mentally stable than the repressed and effete Miss Jane Hathaway, banker Drysdale's secretary.
Hicks tend to be distinguished by a lack of sophistication deriving from their ruralness. Hence, the term is not exactly synonymous with white trash, nor has it been claimed with pride as has the similar redneck. Opponents of "political correctness" often complain that "hicks" continue as almost the only group that can be ridiculed and sterotyped with impunity.