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From: Bruce.Tindall@launchpad.unc.edu (Bruce Tindall)
Subject: Re: "Dixie" folk etymology
Date: 13 Sep 1993 23:50:06 GMT

In article <H.eg.hZnJK99_cDg@harvee.billerica.ma.us> scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us writes: >why are residents of the "the tarheel state" called that? i forget which state

William S. Powell, professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina (home of the national basketball championship team, the Tar Heels) insists that it is two words, Tar Heels, not Tarheels. In his _North Carolina Gazetteer_ (UNC Press, 1968) he says that the town of Tar Heel, N.C., got its name either from British troops during the American Revolution who walked out of a nearby river with tar adhering to their boots and henceforth called the local residents "tar heels" OR from the fact that tar (from pine trees, used in building and repairing sailing ships) was produced in the area, was commonly all over the ground, and frequently got on the soles of people's shoes.

The first written uses of the term, however, come from the Civil War era. (References: The OED, and H.G. Jones's "North Carolina Illustrated, 1524-1984 (UNC Press, 1983--go figure)). Prior to that, there were references to North Carolinians as "tar-boilers" etc., because of the state's reputation as a manufacturer of naval stores (much as a Nebraskan might be called a "cornhusker" or an Australian a "person whose drains swirl the wrong way"), but the epithet settled down to "Tar Heel" in the mid-19th century. (Reference: Another William Powell article I can't lay my hands on but which my father, Powell's colleague, just parapharased from memory over the phone. Motto motto.)

The OED's main entry has it as one word, but what do a bunch of pommie bastards know? Kim Greer also spelled it as one word, but he's from Charlotte AND works at Dook -- end of story.

OBNCUL: The Walter Davis Library at UNC is named for the basketball player. (False; it's named for a former Board of Trustees chairman, a zillionaire Texas oilman, Walter Royal Davis. It is, however, sinking under the weight of the books, like a college library should.)