Southernism
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Anything characteristic of the southern part of a region, especially the southern United States. countable, uncountable
"It is one of the national peccadilloes that anyone who lives north of St. Albans has some kind of prejudice against Londoners — perhaps "prejudice" is the wrong word — or rather not against Londoners but against southernism."
- 2 an attitude characteristic of Southerners (especially in the US) wordnet
- 3 A word or phrase (a dialectism) from Southern American English. countable, uncountable
"I loved his languid, Southern speech and little southernisms, like "you can't put a sequin on a rat's ass.""
- 4 a locution or pronunciation peculiar to the southern United States wordnet
Example
More examples"It is one of the national peccadilloes that anyone who lives north of St. Albans has some kind of prejudice against Londoners — perhaps "prejudice" is the wrong word — or rather not against Londoners but against southernism."
Etymology
From southern + -ism.
Related phrases
More for "southernism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.