clay eater

noun

Usually Disparaging.

1. (in the South Atlantic States) a term used to refer to a poor, uneducated person from a rural area.

Sensitive Note

This term refers to the eating of clay-rich dirt, a persistent custom among poor white and Black people in some rural areas of the South.

Word History and Origins

Origin of clay eater¹

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

Example Sentences

The hut of the "Clay Eater" in South Carolina, the "Sand Hiller" in Georgia, the "Sang Digger" in Virginia was the same as that his grandfather had lived in.

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