tarheel U.S. colloq.
(ˈtɑːhiːl)
Also Tar Heel, Tar-heel, tar-heel.
[f. tar n.1 + heel n.]
A nickname for a native or inhabitant of North Carolina, in allusion to tar as a principal product of that State. Also attrib. Hence ˈtar-heeled a.
| 1864 R. E. Park Diary 9 Dec. in Southern Hist. Soc. Papers (1876) II. 232 A poor, starving Tar Heel at Elmira. 1869 Overland Monthly III. 128 A brigade of North Carolinians..failed to hold a certain hill, and were laughed at by the Mississippians for having forgotten to tar their heels that morning. Hence originated their cant name, ‘Tar-heels’. 1878 Scribner's Monthly Apr. 833/1 A little fellow from North Carolina..announced to the convention he was from ‘the tar-heeled state’. 1888 American Humorist 2 June (Farmer Americanisms), A little volume of North Carolina sketches, written by a talented young friend of mine, in the genuine tarheel dialect. 1889 Jrnl. Amer. Folk-Lore II. 95 The mountain ‘tarheel’ gradually drifted into a condition of dreary indifference to all things sublunary but hog and hominy. 1942 S. Kennedy Palmetto Country 260 North Carolina became known as the Tar-heel State. 1959 [see redneck 1 a]. |