【Boor】 , 【churl】 , 【lout】 , 【clown】 , 【clodhopper】 , 【bumpkin】 , 【hick】 , yokel, 【rube】 are comparable when meaning an uncouth, ungainly fellow.
Most of these words may be applied to rustics, but they tend increasingly to imply reference to breeding, manners, and appearance rather than to origin or social status. The same distinctions in connotations and implications are apparent in the adjectives derived from the first four of these nouns, boorish, churlish, loutish, clownish.
【Boor】 implies an opposition to gentleman, especially in respect to characteristics indicative of good breeding and fineness of feeling.
As a rule 【boor】 and boorish imply variously rudeness of manner, insensitiveness, lack of ceremony, or unwillingness to be agreeable in the presence of others.
【Churl】 may suggest low birth or social status but more often ill-bred surly meanness of expression or attitude. The latter implication is far more common in the adjective churlish, which characteristically implies surliness, irresponsiveness, or ungraciousness.
【Lout】 and loutish apply especially to hulky youths or men without regard to origin and usually suggest stupidity, clumsiness, and sometimes, abjectness of bearing or demeanor.
Both words are terms of contempt frequently applied to idlers or loafers of particularly unprepossessing appearance.
【Clown】 and clownish come close to 【lout】 and loutish in connotation. Instead of stupidity, however, the terms often connote ignorance or simplicity and instead of hulkiness they suggest the ungainliness of a person whose body and movements reveal hard plodding labor.
When used in reference to those who are not countrymen the terms still imply general uncouthness and awkwardness and often, by association with the other sense of 【clown】 , a propensity for absurd antics.
【Clodhopper】 distinctively suggests the frame and the heavy movements generally associated with plowmen but is not restricted in application to rustics.
【Bumpkin】 implies a loutishness suggestive of unfamiliarity with city ways and manners.
【Hick】 comes close to 【bumpkin】 and suggests the unsophisticated simple rustic.
Yokel and 【rube】 more particularly suggest a rustic lack of polish or an obtuse gullibility.
