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Are those words inherited from native Indigenous people? As someone who uses English as a second language and have never lived in a English native country, mos

• Ancapistani 5y ago
  Most of them are loan words from other languages, but not all. "Crawdad", "chigger", and "goober" stand out to me as being actually "American" in origin. A crawdad is a small fresh-water crustacean - they look like small lobsters. They're found in creeks, springs, and similar moving shallow waterways. Also known as "crawfish" or "crayfish". They're very common in the southern US. A chigger is an insect found pretty much everywhere in the South. They're so small they're effectively invisible, very common, and leave ~3-5mm itchy red bumps on your skin. If you go for a walk through tall grass, you're going to itch for days from all the chigger bites. Goober is an old word, and can mean a couple of things. It usually means "peanut". I know that in the South in the late 19th Century, peanuts were at least sometimes called "goober peas" because there was a Confederate marching song of that name. At some point it also came to mean a stupid/ignorant person. I suspect that's because of the stereotype of the poor farmers who typical grew peanuts. The mechanic on the Andy Griffith show was named "Goober", which probably either started or popularized that association.
  • Mountain_Skies 5y ago
    It's also the brand name for peanut butter and jelly swirled in the same jar.