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Added 9 October 2026

yokel

/ˈjəʊ.kəl/ noun

In Latin: petrō Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about yokel at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A person from or living in the countryside, viewed as being unsophisticated or naive.
They love the scenery near their summer home, but have no desire to mix with the local yokels.

Origin

First use appears c. 1812, possibly from dialectal German Jokel, diminutive of Jakob, cf. Yankee (“little John”) and jacquerie (“a peasant uprising”). Alternatively, from dialectal English yokel, yuckle (“a European green woodpecker”), itself probably a variant of hickwall.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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