country cousin

American  

noun

1. a person from the country or from a small town, to whom the sights and activities of a large city are novel and bewildering.

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country cousin British  

noun

1. an unsophisticated person from the country, esp one regarded as an object of amusement

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country cousin Idioms  

1. One whose lack of sophistication or rural ways may amuse or embarrass city dwellers. For example, The sightseeing guide geared his tour toward country cousins who had never been to a large city before. This term, which literally means “a cousin who lives in the country,” has been used in this figurative way since the second half of the 1700s, although the idea is much older (such persons were stock figures of fun in Restoration comedies of the late 1600s and early 1700s).

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Etymology

Origin of country cousin

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

Among the blindingly White milieu of social-climbing “wives of,” acid-tongued grand dames, bored heiresses, buzzing staff and one wide-eyed country cousin is Peggy Scott, an ambitious young Black woman who shines instead of shrinks.

From Washington Post • Jan. 25, 2022

A genealogical chart is not supplied: The audience is tossed into the domestic scrum like a new spouse or a country cousin, to make sense of things as they happen.

From New York Times • Dec. 14, 2021

Right behind Coachella on the weekend of April 24-26 is Stagecoach, Coachella's country cousin.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2015

Their story gives ballast to the High-Dynasty conflict between Cookie and Lucious, and that may help the show strike a better balance than its country cousin Nashville, which has lurched from earnest to outlandish.

From Time • Jan. 7, 2015

“I don’t think our little country cousin is acquainted with any radicals, known or unknown.”

From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson

Related Words

• hick
• hillbilly