southerner

[suhth-er-ner]

noun

1. a native or inhabitant of the south.

2. (initial capital letter),  a native or inhabitant of the southern U.S.

Southerner

/ ˈsʌðənə /

noun

1. (sometimes not capital) a native or inhabitant of the south of any specified region, esp the South of England or the Southern states of the US

Word History and Origins

Origin of Southerner¹

First recorded in 1820–30; southern + -er ¹

Example Sentences

The eventual winner of best picture, Driving Miss Daisy, about a Jewish Southerner and her Black driver, offered Lee an unwelcome sense of déjà vu in 2019, when Green Book, about a Black pianist who must be accompanied on a tour with a white driver, beat his own BlacKkKlansman.

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It spoke to me as a writer, as a Southerner and as a Black person,” he said in an email.

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And being from Louisiana and being a Southerner, and having people get that wrong so much, I didn’t want to offend the people of Pittsburgh, and I thought I would try it, and it went actually quite terribly.

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As Walter, 38, from Clarksdale, Mississippi, told us, “It’s a complicated time to be a white Southerner.”

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Reflecting on what it means to be a white Southerner today, Miriam drew from these experiences living under the region’s long shadow of segregation.

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