Noun
(plural sandlappers)
- A native of South Carolina
Origin
Upon visiting Columbia/Lancaster, SC, in 1791 George Washington dubbed the people living on the sands near the river shores as "sandlappers."
An alternative etymology is that the word was used before and during the American Revolution by the British and the residents of the Carolina coast to refer to residents of the river-bottoms and more generally of the back country and piedmont areas of South Carolina. "Sandlapper" originally had a pejorative connotation, not unlike "hillbilly".
