I normally trust NPR, but I was dubious when someone answered the question, what is a yokel?
Everybody on the program knew a "yokel" was a bumpkin, but nobody knew its origin. "Does it have to do with an ox yoke?" they asked, "Most yokels are farmers." "Or is it related to the yoke of an egg -- they are often used by yokels as hats, no?" Well in fact, the correct answer is much more esoteric: "It is imitative of the green woodpecker of Wales, which announces itself with a loud, 'Yoo-kiil, yoo-kiil.'"
It's cogent. Yokels do live far away from society, tend to fly about in the clouds, and often jab for their food rostrally. Hell, sometimes they even yodel.
Such is what I thought until I remembered Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel. Consider Cletus' smooth drawl.
No slack-jaw can yokel.
Everybody on the program knew a "yokel" was a bumpkin, but nobody knew its origin. "Does it have to do with an ox yoke?" they asked, "Most yokels are farmers." "Or is it related to the yoke of an egg -- they are often used by yokels as hats, no?" Well in fact, the correct answer is much more esoteric: "It is imitative of the green woodpecker of Wales, which announces itself with a loud, 'Yoo-kiil, yoo-kiil.'"
It's cogent. Yokels do live far away from society, tend to fly about in the clouds, and often jab for their food rostrally. Hell, sometimes they even yodel.
Such is what I thought until I remembered Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel. Consider Cletus' smooth drawl.
No slack-jaw can yokel.
