Origin of the Word Hoosier

Abstract

The many and vaired accounts of the origin of the term "Hoosier" mostly have in common one thing- improbability. These stories are too well known to give space to here and may be found elsewhere- for instance in Meredith Nicholson's "The Hoosiers." So far as we know Jacob P. Dunn is the only one who has made anything like a thorough study of the question, and because his conclusions seem to us the most reasonable theory in the field, and, in addition, are but little known, we think they will be of interest here.