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Roughneck vs Redneck - What's the difference?

roughneck | redneck |

As nouns the difference between redneck and roughneck

is that redneck is an uneducated, unsophisticated, or poor caucasian person, typically used to describe residents (of any gender) of the rural Southern US while roughneck is any labourer on an oil rig.

As a verb roughneck is

to work as a laborer on an oil rig.

roughneck

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any labourer on an oil rig
  • A rowdy or uncouth person

    • See also

    *roustabout, oil trash *(wikipedia "roughneck")

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To work as a laborer on an oil rig
  • *{{quote-news, 2009, January 13, Michael Brick, Racing's Last Frontier, New York Times citation
    • , passage=There was a time not long ago when this region appeared as some enduring mystification, its citizenry best known for roughnecking on the North Slope

    redneck

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang, pejorative) An uneducated, unsophisticated, or poor caucasian person, typically used to describe residents (of any gender Country Music Lyrics New Country Tunes) of the rural Southern US.
  • (slang) The nickname given to miners who wore red bandanas for identification during the West Virginia mine war of 1921. West Virginia Division of Culture and History
  • (UK, archaic) The nickname given to Roman Catholics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

    • Synonyms

    * cracker, hick, hillbilly, peckerwood, white trash

    Derived terms

    * redneckish * redneckism * rednecky

    References

    English ethnic slurs