[f. SOUTHERN a. + -ISM.]
1. An idiom, expression or word peculiar to the southern States of America. Orig. U.S.
1835. Free Selma Press, 8 Aug., 1/4. Southernisms…. Heap, is a most prolific word in the Carolinas and Georgia, among the common people, and with children, at least.
1882. A. K. Spence, in Amer. Mission., April, 108. Aside from African features…, and some Southernisms in voice and expression.
1886. Academy, 11 Sept., 174/3. Among the words classed as Southernisms, or as having peculiar Southern uses, were [etc.].
2. The quality of being southern in character.
1911. Q. Reg. Panpresbyt. Ch., Nov., 479. New Orleans has its solid Southernism before, during, and since the war.
