''Coonass'', or ''Coon-ass'', is a derogatory term for a person of
Cajun
The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
While Cajuns are usually described as ...
ethnicity. It's believed to originate from the French word "conasse" meaning a fool.
Usage
Socioeconomic factors appear to influence how Cajuns are likely to view the term: working-class Cajuns tend to regard the word "coonass" as a badge of ethnic pride, whereas middle- and upper-class Cajuns are more likely to regard the term as insulting or degrading, even when used by fellow Cajuns in reference to themselves.
(In
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...
, this type of behavior is termed
covert prestige
In sociolinguistics, covert prestige is a type of scenario in which nonstandard languages or dialects are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a speech community. This is in contrast to the typical case of linguistic prestige, ...
.) Despite an effort by Cajun activists to stamp out the term, it can be found on T-shirts, hats, and bumper stickers throughout
Acadiana, the 22-parish Cajun homeland in south
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
.
The term is also used by some of Cajun descent in nearby
East Texas
East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...
and
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
.
Etymology
The origins of "coonass" are obscure, and Cajuns have put forth several
folk etymologies
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
in an effort to explain the word's origin. Some of these hold that the word refers to the Cajuns' occasional habit of eating
raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
s, or from the use of
coonskin cap
A coonskin cap is a hat fashioned from the skin and fur of a raccoon. The original coonskin cap consisted of the entire skin of the raccoon including its head and tail. Beginning as traditional Native American headgear, coonskin caps became assoc ...
s by the Cajuns' ancestors while fighting in the
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...
or in the
Revolutionary War under Spanish colonial Governor
Bernardo de Gálvez
Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid, 1st Count of Gálvez (23 July 1746 – 30 November 1786) was a Spanish military leader and government official who served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Sp ...
. Another folk etymology attributes the term to the racial slur "
coon
Coon may refer to:
Fauna Butterflies
* Coon, common name of the butterfly ''Astictopterus jama''
* Coon, species group of the butterfly genus ''Atrophaneura'', now genus ''Losaria''
* Coon, common name of the butterfly '' Psolos fuligo''
Ma ...
," used in reference to
African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
— Another holds that the term derives from the shape of a woman after having children (like a raccoon viewed from above).
And yet another folk etymology maintains that "coonass" is a corruption of the French and Latin word ''cunnus'', a vulgar term for "vulva".
The most popular folk etymology, however, stems from late Louisiana congressman and cultural activist
James "Jimmy" Domengeaux, who maintained that "coonass" derived from the continental French word ''connasse''. According to the
French Wiktionary, the French
Larousse dictionary, and the
French Wikipedia
The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...
, ''connasse'' entered the French language at the beginning of the 19th century and the term translates loosely to "dirty prostitute". Domengeaux asserted that Frenchmen used the term in reference to Cajun soldiers serving in France during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and that Anglo-American soldiers overheard the term, transformed it into "coonass" and brought it back to the US as a disparaging term for Cajuns. Citing Domengeaux's etymology, Louisiana legislators passed a
concurrent resolution
A concurrent resolution is a resolution (a legislative measure) adopted by both houses of a bicameral legislature that lacks the force of law (is non-binding) and does not require the approval of the chief executive (president). Concurrent resolut ...
in the 1980s condemning the word. Contrary to popular belief, the lawmakers did not ban the term.
Research has since disproved Domengeaux's ''connasse'' etymology. Indeed, photographic evidence shows that Cajuns themselves used the term prior to the time in which ''connasse'' allegedly morphed into "coonass".
Examples
![Coonassflashlight](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Coonassflashlight.JPG)
*In the early 1980s, a Cajun worker sued his former employer over repeated use of the word "coonass" in the workplace. The lawsuit led directly to the federal government's recognition of the Cajuns as a national
ethnic group as protected by the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.
*Although the
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature (french: Législature d'État de Louisiane) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 repres ...
condemned the word's use in 1981, the Louisiana
Air National Guard's acclaimed
159th Tactical Fighter Group referred to itself as the "Coonass Militia" until 1992.
*
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...
head football coach
Nick Saban
Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. (; born October 31, 1951) is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins ...
came under fire in early 2007 for using the term while speaking "off the record" to a reporter. Audio of the conversation was leaked onto the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
before garnering mainstream media attention.
*New Orleans pianist-singer
Dr. John
Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
Active as a session musician from ...
described himself as one in the opening lines of "Black Gold", singing "take it from this coonass". The song was one of five tracks on Dr. John's 2008 album ''
City That Care Forgot'', co-composed by Cajun songwriter
Bobby Charles
Robert Charles Guidry (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010), known as Bobby Charles, was an American singer-songwriter.
Early life
An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, United States, and grew up listening to Cajun mus ...
.
[https://robindunnmusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/bobby-charles-song-lyrics-2015.pdf Bobby Charles lyrics]
*In July 2014,
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...
member
Dennis Bonnen
Dennis Higgins Bonnen (born March 3, 1972) is an American businessman and politician. Bonnen served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. A Republican, Bonnen represented District 25 of the Texas House from 1997 to ...
made a remark on the House floor referring to the language spoken by children displaced from
Hurricane Katrina as "coonass". Media reports characterized his use of the term as "derogatory", "offensive", and a "vulgar slang term".
References
{{Ethnic slurs
American slang
Cajun
English profanity