Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

The etymology of the word “Dixie” is murky, with a few theories. Some theories are race neutral; one certainly is not.

But the etymology is not terribly relevant to the connotation in this case. There is little doubt that the popularization of the word “Dixie” as a reference to the South comes from the song. This song enjoyed its popularity primarily as an unofficial theme song of the Confederacy.

Personally, as a northerner, I don't hold that strong of an association between “Dixie” and the politics of the Confereracy. But I am not surprised that significant numbers in the South might. I would avoid using the term due to its strong association with the Confederacy and its use as an informal rallying song.

Even if its origin was neutral, it seems it is “skunked,” (as discussed in previous AWWW broadcasts) at least in the South, where the associations may be strong.

Good point. I like to think music transcends politics. But I've been calling it New Orleans jazz for decades, not for political reasons. Maybe that varies regionally as well.

The term "Negro Spiritual" was in use long after "Negro" fell away from proper use. Certain fixed expressions can persist long, long after the constituent parts fade to obscurity.

Perhaps I skirted the heart of your question with my response. I fully agree with Grant that a person's use of the word “Dixie” absolutely does not mark that person as a racist. As for how you change your behavior toward a person who is offended by its use, I suggest it very much depends on how important the offended person is to you.

The Dictionary of Modern American Usage (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998) says this:

When a word undergoes a marked change from one use to another . . . it's likely to be the subject of dispute. Some people (Group 1) insist on the traditional use; others (Group 2) embrace the new use. . . . Any use of [the word] is likely to distract some readers. The new use seems illiterate to Group 1; the old use seems odd to Group 2. The word has become “skunked.”

Still, I disagree with Grant in that there is credible evidence that sensible people find “Dixie” offensive, associating the song and the term with racism, likely in its use mentioned above. This is why I might consider the term “skunked.”

Article Title: George Bush is whistling ‘Dixie.' (racism in politics)

Article Title: Away, Dixie! (racism) (Editorial)

WSJ …'doesn't even need to dog-whistle Dixie in order to be making appeals to racism'

While I don't consider the word racist, your ruling on the word, and the possibility that it is "skunked," would depend on how credible you think people are who DO have that association.

I've looked up the word in all of my American dictionaries, and none of them caution me about its use. Is that typical of a "skunked" word? Some dictionaries explain that it was popularized in the minstrel song "Dixie's Land," in 1859. Am I supposed to be smart and sensitive enough to figure out that a word that was popularized in a minstrel song 150 years ago should not be used today? Or is the word skunked because it refers to the previously slave-holding Confederate South?

If it is a controversial, skunked word, then why is it still in such common use? As I said in a previous post, there is Dixieland music. When my son was in high school he was a member of a nationally ranked Dixieland band. Dixie Cup is a brand name for the ubiquitous paper cups we use. These disposable paper cups, previously called "Health Kups," were renamed Dixie Cups after Dixie Dolls, back in 1919. Of course now there are also Dixie plates, bowls, knives, forks, and spoons. There is the Winn-Dixie chain of supermarkets and the popular children's book which was made into a movie, Because of Winn-Dixie. There are schools, school districts, and colleges named Dixie, as well as school sports teams. There is a county and a national forest named Dixie. Dolly Parton has a show called the Dixie Stampede. There is the popular singing group Dixie Chicks, and though they offended Bush supporters it wasn't because of their name. Anyway, y'all get the idea. If a word that is "skunked" can enjoy such popular usage, I'm wondering what it really means to be skunked?

I hope you continue to provide updates about your "research" on this skunked word! I hope that someone who is knowledgeable about skunked words would say more about it. Is there an official skunked word list somewhere? How many people have to feel offended by a word before it's skunked? Are there degrees of how stinky a skunked word is, and if there are degrees, how stinky, on a scale of one to ten, is Dixie? Is skunking a word essentially the same thing as being PC (politically correct)?

Unfortunately, no one has yet addressed my point that if Dixie is in fact a skunked word, why then is it so ubiquitous? Is there a movement to take this word out of ubiquity and put it into obscurity?

The story of the song that popularized the word is interesting, too. The guy who claimed credit for the song, Dan Emmett, composed it for his minstrel show. But he was not happy about the South adopting it. A quote:

If I had known to what use they [Southerners] were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it.

Was Emmett mad because he was a Northerner and the South was using his song? How did Emmett, as a blackface entertainer, feel about slavery? Emmett's original lyrics to Dixie are certainly racist and disrespectful, but did he intend them as satire?

Here's a quote from President Lincoln:

I have always though that Dixie was one of the best tunes I ever heard. I had heard our adversaries had attempted to appropriate it. I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it.

Stuff that into your corncob pipe and smoke it!

When I probed further, she said that she actually thought of: having been relegated to the back of buses; not being served in downtown restaurants or at lunch counters . . . So, for her, Dixie means Jim Crow, segregation, the Confederacy, absence of freedoms–not a pleasantly experienced word for her at all.

Hold on a minute, my Texan compadre. She was a 66-year-old black Texan woman who had personal experience with racism. It is almost a certainty that you would have gotten the same "results" if you had "probed further" about the South and never even mentioned Dixie. She associated Dixie with the South. She associated the South with racism. A rose is a rose, no matter what other name you give it and no matter how much it stinks.

The reason why some people find the word Dixie offensive is not mysterious. Just look at the lyrics to the song that made the word popular (and it was a minstrel song, after all). In addition, the song was adopted by the slave-holding, Confederate South. The real question today is: has this word taken on a new, non-offensive meaning over the years? Judging by its ubiquitous use, I am tempted to say yes, it has. Should we object to the use of this word? I don't know.

Yes, like Pepé Le Pew. Are we going to call this skunk out, or not?

I always thought Dixie referred to the part of the country that was south of the Mason-"Dixon" line (i.e. the original boundary between the slave and free states. Now, however, I think of it more in terms of the "Deep South" or perhaps the "Old South" and in that respect, it may have a negative connotation. However, the word also conveys a great deal of local pride and tradition which may not be entirely due to the myth of the ideal world of the antebellum South. That said, I also don't think I've ever heard a black person refer to the South as "Dixie". If a term is used only by one ethnic group, does that necessarily mean it should be skunked? Certainly there are words used mostly by black Americans and we don't discuss their skunkiness.