Scots-Irish
Americannoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What angered Scots-Irish Americans most was elite condescension, which aroused the populist uprising that put Jackson in the White House.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
However, Vance has also described himself as a "Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart" in the past, with his ancestors having moved to the Appalachian region in the US more than three centuries ago.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2025
Some linguists trace it back to the Scots-Irish phrase "ye aw"; others suggest an African American origin, perhaps from the Igbo word for "you" brought over by Nigerian-born enslaved people.
From Salon ● Dec. 5, 2022
A 2013 report from NPR found the term was used as an insult as far back as the 17th Century and was later used to refer to Scots-Irish immigrants settling in the Southern U.S.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 4, 2022
His parents were Scots-Irish immigrants who had arrived in America two years earlier.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
