Definition of "bumpkin" [bump•kin]

• An awkward, unsophisticated person; a yokel. (noun)
• A short spar projecting from the deck of a ship, used to extend a sail or secure a block or stay. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This bumpkin is as dumb as Palin, M. Sanford, Limbaugh el al"
• "Dr. Johnson, however, strangely enough deduces the word bumpkin from bump; but what if it should prove to be a corruption of bumbard, or bombard: in low Latin, bombardus, a great gun, and from thence applied to a large flagon, or full glass."
• "If being a bumpkin were his only fault, one could excuse his ignorance."