cornpone

C2+ Topic:Register & Style

Also spelled corn-pone

US /ˈkɔrnˌpoʊn/ UK /ˈkɔːnpəʊn/ See IPA manual

Freq #118941

Meanings

1

noun
chiefly Southern US: a simple cornbread, traditionally made without milk or eggs and baked or fried

The family ate beans with a hot wedge of cornpone.
2

noun
US informal, sometimes disparaging: a person or thing regarded as stereotypically rural, Southern, or unsophisticated

The critic mistook the speaker's accent for cornpone and ignored her sharp argument.
3

adj
US informal, sometimes disparaging: rural, old-fashioned, or unsophisticated in style

The campaign relied on cornpone humor to appear folksy.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · chiefly southern us: a... ponecornbread

2 noun · us informal, sometimes... rusticcountry person

3 adj · us informal, sometimes... rustichomespun

Opposites

sophisticated

Word family

Related forms cornbreadjohnnycakepone

Etymology

A compound of corn + pone. Pone entered American English from an Indigenous Virginia Algonquian word for bread, probably through Powhatan. Cornpone first named a plain maize bread and later acquired figurative, sometimes disparaging associations with stereotyped rural Southern culture.

Topics

External links

# cornpone

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun, adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈkɔrnˌpoʊn/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈkɔːnpəʊn/
**Frequency rank:** 118941

## Meanings
1. chiefly Southern US: a simple cornbread, traditionally made without milk or eggs and baked or fried
2. US informal, sometimes disparaging: a person or thing regarded as stereotypically rural, Southern, or unsophisticated
3. US informal, sometimes disparaging: rural, old-fashioned, or unsophisticated in style

## Examples
- The family ate beans with a hot wedge of cornpone.
- The critic mistook the speaker's accent for cornpone and ignored her sharp argument.
- The campaign relied on cornpone humor to appear folksy.

## Synonyms
- pone
- cornbread
- rustic
- homespun

## Antonyms
- sophisticated

## Related Forms
- cornbread
- johnnycake
- pone

## Etymology
A compound of corn + pone. Pone entered American English from an Indigenous Virginia Algonquian word for bread, probably through Powhatan. Cornpone first named a plain maize bread and later acquired figurative, sometimes disparaging associations with stereotyped rural Southern culture.

## Topics
- Register & Style
- General Vocabulary

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