cunnerman
n.— «Cunnerman or Cutterman: There is some debate over the correct pronunciation. People with trashy house, cars on blocks in yard, etc. “If you’ve been married three times and still have the same in-laws, you might be a cunnerman.”» —“Decoding teen slang” by Beth Brelje Pocono Record (Pennsylvania) Mar. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
An anadrome is a word that forms a whole new word when you spell it backwards. For example, the word “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts.” Some people’s first names are anadromes. There’s the girl named Noel...
Rose in Edmonton, Kentucky, notes that many people in her area pronounce the word idea as if it were ideal. That’s a common dialectal feature in the Southern United States, as well as Appalachia and the Mid-Atlantic. In parts of New England...
The term is almost exclusive to the Stroudsburgs of Northeastern Pennsylvania. ‘Cunnerman’ is the preferred pronunciation, as it is a slurring of the surname “Counterman”, a local, working-class family for whom the term was supposedly coined. “Cutterman” appears to be the more preferred pronunciation of the neophyte or outsider. The latter may be attributed, however, to the term “Cutter”, possibly referring to a slate quarryman, once a local occupation (much like in Indiana, as seen and used in the film BREAKING AWAY), in the Slate Belt region, just south of Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg.
It is not synonymous with “Redneck” or “White Trash” entirely-it has, in fact, in recent years become a badge of honor or representing a closed group, as New York and New Jersey residents have populated the Stroudsburgs and the greater Pocono area. A Cunnerman knows who his fellow Cunnermen are, and would be more prone to help one out than an outsider. It is a closed fraternity. Generally you don’t ‘become’ one-you are born one. In the 43 years I’ve lived in Stroudsburg I’ve never had a problem spotting one, nor being recognized as one, by my own kind.