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What is redneck mean?

The word means "a person who works outdoors and gets sunburn on their neck", like a farmer. Somehow the term "redneck" has become an insult. I don't know why. Farmers and outdoor workers are important and no one should be insulted for their work or culture. I cringe when people use the word to pretend they are more classy or important than the "redneck".

derogatory term used mainly against uneducated poor and lower middle-class whites in america, but can be applied to people in other countries too.

comes from the tanning or reddening of the back of neck that occurs to people who work outdoors in the hot sun, a part of the body often left uncovered.

Back in the 1980s, it wasn’t such a negative term.

It used to mean a Southern blue-collar worked who might have “hick” type values. Maybe like a more macho Gomer Pyle.

I think the word should be banned, or considered racist. We can't go about using derogatory slang for any other group or class of people. It reeks of elitism when people say that word.

I was born a redneck. I have a big splotchy red birthmark on the back of my neck.

I'm from the deep south & most of the time I heard the word Redneck, it was NOT used as an insult. Lots of people use that word to describe themselves. People are proud to be Rednecks.

Good!

I hate when it's derogatory but using the word in its true sense is fine!

Maybe the word Redneck is like the N word for African Americans. The N word used to be an insult & then the African American community took the word & made it their own. Listen to rap songs or African American standup comics. The difference is that the African American community gets offended when anyone but one of them uses the N word whereas people who identify as Redneck tend to not have a problem people outside their community calling them that. BTW does anyone remember how famous Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck jokes got, The Rednecks I know love those jokes.

It depends on whom you ask. I think the truth is a wide variation in the mixture of these:

"A person exhibiting a glorious lack of sophistication." -- Jeff Foxworthy

"A working-class white person, especially a politically reactionary one from a rural area." -- The Oxford Dictionary

"A farmer who worked the fields all day and got his neck sunburned." -- Lewis Grizzard

Yes, it has indeed turned into an insult although the term itself doesn't have any correlation. But it is what it is, it isn't the only word that has transformed its meaning over time.

I first heard folks use the term around 1970. It meant a "country hick with an attitude(ie reactionary bigoted)".

Someone who would support George Wallace back then.

The non insulting equivalent term that appeared about the same time was "good 'ole boy".

It was a derogatory term from the get-go, that even had that non derogatory available alternative.
But at the same time folks would reclaim the term and wear it as a badge of honor.

So its highly inaccurate to say that it started out neutral and then later got derogatory. It was always an ambiguous term that could be used, and or taken,as good, bad, or neutral.

The main characters in the Dukes of Hazzard would have been considered “rednecks.” They were fun-loving people who might be described as “hick.” But they didn’t possess many of the reactionary qualities ascribed to “redneckhood” these days.

The derogatory meaning has superseded all others.

In Vermont a lot of people call themselves rednecks and it a compliment not an insult.It just means a country person in Vermont.
It came from people who had red necks from a sun burn from there neck being exposed to the sun when the bent down to pick cotton.

My image of a "redneck" in the 1980s was some Southern guy who wears a plaid shirt, hung out at the local bar, has a few drinks with his friends, and is, in general, not very sophisticated. But not a bad guy, either. Rather like the people in the Dukes of Hazzard.

It usually means a blue collar worker working in the sun and got a sunburn and thus made the neck red.