Of all the controversies that have arisen after Indiana’s acceptance as a state in 1816, no other controversy has lasted longer than what is a “Hoosier?” Numerous explanations are funny, some are blatantly unbelievable, and some of the explanations seemed logical. There will probably never be a complete consensus on the origins of the word Hoosier, but what follows is a list of the various stories surrounding the moniker of those who live in the state of Indiana.

Good evidence suggests that “Hoosier” was a term of contempt and disrespect common in the upland South and used to denote a rustic, a bumpkin, a countryman, a roughneck, a hick or an awkward, uncouth or unskilled fellow. Although the word’s derogatory meaning has faded, it can still be heard in its original sense, albeit less frequently than its cousins “Redneck” and “Cracker.” From the upland South, “Hoosier” moved into the Ohio Valley, where it applied to the presumably unsophisticated inhabitants of Southern Indiana. Later it expanded to include all residents of the state and gradually lost its original, potent connotation of coarseness in manners, appearance and intellect.

As for the word itself, it may derive from the Saxon word “hoo” meaning promontory or cliff or ridge or rise or hill. Jacob Piatt Dunn, a thorough scholar of the word, believes in a Saxon beginning, and such a meaning survives in various place names in England. There is some sense in the notion, too, that those who uttered the insult and those to whom it was applied (and who understood it) came primarily from British stock.

When a visitor hailed a pioneer cabin in Indiana or knocked upon its door, the settler would respond, “Who’s yere?” And from this frequent response, Indiana became the “Who’s yere” or Hoosier State. No one ever explained why this was more typical of Indiana than of Illinois or Ohio?

That Indiana rivermen were so spectacularly successful in beating or “hushing” their adversaries in the brawling that was then common that they became known as “hushers” eventually Hoosiers.

That there was once a contractor named Hoosier employed on the Louisville and Portland Canal who preferred to hire laborers from Indiana. They were called “Hoosier’s men” and eventually all Indianans were called Hoosiers.

A theory attributed to Indiana Governor Joseph Wright was to the effect that Hoosier derived from an Indian word for corn, “hoosa.” Indiana flatboat men taking corn or maize to New Orleans came to be known as “hoosa men” or Hoosiers. Unfortunately for this theory, a search of Indian vocabularies by a careful student of linguistics failed to reveal any such word for corn.

As plausible as these was the facetious explanation offered by James Whitcomb Riley. He claimed it originated in the pugnacious habits of our early settlers. They were enthusiastic and vicious fighters who gouged, scratched and bit off noses and ears. This was so common an occurrence that a settler coming into a tavern the morning after a fight and seeing an ear on the floor would touch it with his toe and casually ask, “Whose ear?”