different between clodhopper vs bushie

English

Etymology

Compound of clod +? hopper (agentive form of the verb hop). Perhaps affected by analogy with grasshopper. Attested in the sense of "peasant" since the seventeenth century; the extended sense of "boot" or "shoe" dates from the nineteenth century.

Pronunciation

Noun

clodhopper (plural clodhoppers)

1. A strong shoe for heavy-duty use, a boot.
   • 1830, Margaret Hundy, "First Epistle from Mrs. Margaret Hundy", The Lady's Magazine:

     ...who had got on his "hill shoes," as he calls a pair of clodhoppers as thick as a ploughman's, and stuck round with nails.

2. (US) Any kind of shoe.
   • 1959, Claude F. Koch, "A Matter of Family":

     We had to walk slow because of his wooden clod-hoppers, and that was the way I wanted it now

3. (military slang) United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.
   • 1943, "Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts", LIFE Magazine, August 16:

     Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard."

4. A peasant or yokel.
   • 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone, ch. 14:

     'Nephew Jack,' he cried, looking at me when I was thinking what to say, and finding only emptiness, 'you are a heavy lout, sir; a bumpkin, a clodhopper; and I shall leave you nothing, unless it be my boots to grease.'

5. (Britain) A clumsy or foolish person.
   • 1826, P.H. Clias, "Gymnastics", Blackwood's Magazine, Volume XX, No. CXV, August:

     All guess-work exploits shrivel up a good yard, or sometimes two, when brought to the measure, and the champion of the county dwindles into a clumsy clod-hopper.

6. Wheatear; any of various passerine birds.

Synonyms

• clodknocker

Related terms

• clodhopperish

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• bushy

Etymology

From bush +? -ie.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian, UK) IPA^(key): /?b??i/

Noun

bushie (plural bushies)

1. (Australia, colloquial) Someone who lives in or is familiar with the Australian outback; a bushman or bushwoman.
   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, p. 184:

     I bought the king parrot from an old bushie in a pub in Exhibition Street.

   • 1998, David Malouf, A First Place, Vintage 2015, p. 179:

     Timber was a sign of poverty, of our poor-white condition and backwardness: it made ‘bushies’ of us.