coonass

Coonass is a controversial term in the Cajun lexicon: to some Cajuns it is regarded as the supreme ethnic slur, meaning \\"ignorant, backwards Cajun\\"; to others the term is a badge of pride, much like the word Chicano is for Mexican Americans. In South Louisiana, for example, one can often see bumper stickers reading \\"Warning — Coonass on Board!\\" or \\"Registered Coonass\\" (both of which generally depict a raccoon’s backside). The word’s origin is unclear: folk etymology claims that coonass dates from World War II, when Cajun GIs serving in France were derided by native French speakers as conasse, meaning \\"dirty whore\\" or \\"idiot.\\" Non-French-speaking American GIs allegedly overheard the expression, converted it to the English \\"coonass,\\" and introduced the term back in the United States. There it supposedly soon caught on as a derisive term among non-Cajuns, who encountered many Cajuns in Gulf Coast oilfields. It is now known, however, that coonass predated the arrival of Cajun GIs in France during World War II, which undermines the conasse theory. Indeed, folklorist Barry Jean Ancelet has long rejected this theory, calling it \\"shaky linguistics at best.\\" He has suggested that the word originated in South Louisiana, and that it derived from the belief that Cajuns frequently ate raccoons. He has also proposed that the term contains a negative racial connotation: namely, that Cajuns were \\"beneath\\" or \\"under\\" blacks (or coons, as blacks were often called by racists). Despite efforts by Cajun activists like James Domengeaux and Warren A. Perrin to stamp out the term’s use, coonass continues to circulate in South Louisiana and beyond. Its acceptability among the general public, however, tends to vary according to circumstances, and often depends on who says it and with what intention. Cajuns who dislike the term have been known to correct well-meaning outsiders who use the epithet.

1)derogatory term for cajuns
2)term embraced by some cajuns
3) language used by such,more prominent in older cajuns

there is much debate to the origins of the word, but one fact is known. the term in no way shape or form came from anything having to do with raccoons! get it through you heads people! it morphed from a phrase in cajun french. those who are poser cajuns, of acadian decent but grew up in the city and think their shit don't stink, think of it as an ethnic slur no matter the context in which it is spoken. other cajuns that still have a sense of humor, see the name as a badge of honor except when uttered by a fucking red neck. then it becomes a racial slur.

def. - a person typically of Acadian decent that grew up in the rural areas of what is now known as Acadiana that doesn't make apologies for his simplistic lifestyle nor does the coonass put on heirs simply to satisfy the sensibilities of others. also, coonasses believe rednecks look and sound stupid.

1) What East Texans call a Cajun.

2) What East Texans call an East Texas Cajun, as opposed to a Louisiana Cajun.

3) Any Cajun, though increasingly term is considered derogatory.

people who can cook better then a redneck stumpjumper
yankee hillbilly and kentucky freaks

A cajun person, usually of the backwoods variety.

NOUN: A cross between a bowlegged New Orleans whore and a mullet-eating marsh alligator with bad breath and a dime in his pocket, hatched somewhere in the Atchafalaya Basin in Southwestern Louisiana in an underwater catfish hole, the boudain skin used for a condom having busted during intercourse the previous summer.

Some have asserted that General Andrew Jackson, who is famous for the command given to his entrenched troops during the War of 1812, "Hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes," fathered the first coonass after a leave of absence taken in New Orleans immediately following the war where he had a hurried tryst with an English officer's wife in a privy behind a hotel in the French Quarter. However, this cannot be true because of the fact that coonasses all have bloodshot eyes and cannot therefore be related to the English.

Others maintain that the first coonasses were actually shipwrecked, scurvied Moroccan pirates, their galley slaves, French Canadian whores obtained in a raid on the shores of the Arcadian Province, and AWOL French legionaries who blew into the salt marshes of Louisiana running before a hurricane. In their attempts to survive without the convenience of toilet paper and mouthwash, they took to trapping raccoons in the swamps and trading with the Native American tribes in Southeast Texas for corncobs, pine tar and ground sassafras root. Soon, they became infamous among these Texan tribesmen for wearing their raccoon hats backwards with the tail dangling in their faces. Already known for their anti-social dispositions and failure at proper taxidermy, they quickly became known as "coons' assholes," but the epithet was soon shortened to "coonasses" because of the infestation of mosquitoes in the salt marshes that necessitated saying what one had to say quickly while swatting varmints.

Still others assert that the epithet was completely off base since the shipwrecked foreigners didn't trap raccoons; but rather, nutria rats, crawfish, poke salad and alligator gar; therefore, they simply should have been called weird.

ADJECTIVE: Uneducated; ignorant, pedestrian in the meanest way, uncouth, obnoxiously crude and boorish.