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Glite Dictionary
Tarheel

Tarheel

1 9.5
A person born in or living in North Carolina, US
  • noun
  • /ˈtɑrˌhil/
  • Informal
: Tarheel
  • He often jokes about being a Tarheel during college football season.
  • Tarheel State

Examples

  • As a Tarheel alum, congrats to the Pack.

    Blog text (34)

  • Head below the fold for a look at the current state of the race in the Tarheel State.

    Blog text (23)

  • "Something just told me you'd have to be from the Tarheel State."

    Fiction book (1999)

  • As of this moment, 13,505 people's votes have made the difference here in the Tarheel State.

    Blog text (13)

  • I'm married to a Tarheel, and in his neck of the woods, it's Liver Pudding.

    Blog text (14)

  • The Tarheel Museum project has become a permanent fixture in the fourth-grade curriculum.

    Academic text (1998)

  • As a born and bred Tarheel now living in Oklahoma, I spend a lot of money (especially for holidays) to have Neese's Liver Pudding.

    Blog text (1)

  • My cousin is a proud Tarheel who supports the local basketball team.

  • Living in North Carolina all her life, she proudly identifies as a Tarheel.

Synonyms

Carolinian
vsTarheel
8 5.9

A person who lives in North or South Carolina in the United States

refers specifically to North Carolina residents rather than both states
North Carolinian
vsTarheel
3 4.2

A person born in or living in the US state of North Carolina

is the informal nickname used for residents of that state

Surface Forms

Tarheel singular
Tarheels plural

Morphology

Tarheel = tar + heel (semi-transparent) = tar + heel

The word is a clear compound of 'tar' + 'heel', but the demonymic meaning 'resident of North Carolina' is a figurative extension not directly derivable by standard composition rules.

Etymology

The word Tarheel comes from the parts tar and heel because North Carolina once made a lot of 'tar', the sticky black stuff used on ships and roads. One popular story says workers sometimes got 'tar' on their heels and 'stuck', which is a helpful image to remember the name. So, a Tarheel is someone from North Carolina and the name became a proud nickname for the people and the university team.