Southerner

The fixing anything part probably is more common among male (U.S.) Southerners. And not all Southern accents are slow (Boomhauer from King of the Hill, for example.) Someone from the South who's not ashamed of it.

In response to mcSey, below, I've read novels set in England where "Southerner" was used to mean a wimpy city guy, since the south is where the larger, more sophisticated cities are in England; presumably "Northerner" might have the same vaguely "hick" connotations there that "Southerner" does in the U.S.

In response to mat catastrophe -- well, if you go far enough south, say to Florida, you run into Yankees again.

We're not really sure where the line between Southerner and Northerner begins. Generally accepted to be at the Mason-Dixon Line (Maryland- Pennsylvania Border). However, observation states that it very well could lie on the Virginia-Maryland-Washington DC border or even as far South as Virginia - North Carolina.

RE: Webster 1913 below,
"a native of the south.. opposed to Northerner ."
Boy, how ironic is that? Opposed? Try violently opposed.

Also, how many people north of the Mason-Dixon Line actually call themselves that - "Northerner?" I have met many people from New York state and Pennsylvania who have never even heard of the term, not to think -use it. Where there is Southern literature, Southern culture, etc. I know of little cultural practices described as Northern.

Yankee, yes, there is quite a bit of that, including a semi-famous magazine. But it tends to apply only to New England, not anything and anyone "up there."

In response to Edelweiss, the line has been moving steadily South since the Civil War. Although Maryland towns (and even some in Pennsylvania) are built along the same lines as your average Southern town, Maryland's bond to the South was forever shattered by its refusal to secede. While Abraham Lincoln declared martial law in MD in order to keep the aristocrats in the state government from seceding, most of the state had no interest in joining the Confederate States of America.

Next to fall was Washington, DC. John F. Kennedy famously described Washington as having "Northern charm and Southern efficiency," but DC's last vestiges of Southernness were gone by the 1960s. Now, Northern Virginia is no longer part of the South. One joke outside NoVA is that it's really a separate state; Virginia, and hence The South, begins at Fredericksburg, which is backed up by the placement of the first Virginia Welcome Center on Interstate 95. So the line is currently between Richmond and Washington.

The scary part for this Richmonder, though, is that I can see the line crossing Richmond sometime in the next 20-30 years. I already know several people that commute to Washington or NoVA from Richmond, and the trend will only increase as commuter rail (Virginia Railway Express) extends service to Richmond as planned. My state senator, John B. Watkins, said it -- Richmond is becoming a bedroom city to Washington whether we like it or not. The faster we accept that fact, the better Richmond will be able to plan for and adapt to that role.

South"ern*er (?), n.

An inhabitant or native of the south, esp. of the Southern States of North America; opposed to Northerner.

 

© Webster 1913.