idiomatic expression
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...
for someone accustomed to a city or urban lifestyle and unsuited to life in the country. The term was typically used as a term of derision by rural Americans and Canadians who regarded them with amusement. It may refer to a "
fop
Fop is a pejorative term for a foolish man.
FOP or fop may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Feature-oriented positioning, in scanning microscopy
* Feature-oriented programming, in computer science, software product lines
* Fibrodysplasia ...
", or it may be a derogatory term for a person wearing inappropriate city-type business attire, particularly with a brusque or condescending attitude in areas where local residents are offended by an arrogant attitude combined with disdain and lack of respect for rural people and lifestyles. The term can be used to describe people who are perceived as dishonest, arrogant, or simply naive.
''City slicker'' was derisively given to people from the urban
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...
and Canada when they took on an attitude that their lifestyle and access to the culture of city life gave them superior intelligence. Rural people, particularly those in the west, notably
cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
s, often used the perception of a snobbish attitude as justification for playing practical jokes on such people.
The archetypal city slicker is depicted as a spoiled, selfish, lazy, and/or wealthy individual, who considers people living on farms to be poor and ignorant. They are depicted as being unaccustomed to hard labour and as a result, tire very easily and complain when working. City slickers appeared often as deceitful characters in U.S.
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
s and
movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
s before the middle of the 20th century, but usually to be "outsmarted" by the native wisdom and common sense of the locals or to somehow otherwise get their
just deserts
Desert () in philosophy is the condition of being deserving of something, whether good or bad. It is sometimes called moral desert to clarify the intended usage and distinguish it from the dry desert biome. It is a concept often associated wi ...
in the end.Cf. Mickey Mouse comic Mr.Slicker and the Egg Robbers ' (1930).
While the term is still used in rural areas today, other related terms include:
dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural ...
,
tenderfoot
Tenderfoot or The Tenderfoot may refer to:
* Tenderfoot Scout, the second rank in Scouts BSA
* A guest at a guest ranch, also known as a "dude"
* "Tenderfoot", a song by Tom Morgan on the Lemonheads album '' Car Button Cloth''
* ''The Tenderfoot' ...
, and
greenhorn
Greenhorn is a slang for an inexperienced person, or a slur against Portuguese people in New England, United States. It may also refer to:
Places
* Greenhorn, California, United States
* Greenhorn Mountain, a mountain in Colorado
* Greenhorn, ...
;
antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members ...
s include
yokel
Yokel is one of several derogatory terms referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people. The term is of uncertain etymology and is only attributed from the early 19th century.
Yokels are depicted as straightforward, simple, naĆ ...