Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./US) rustic, unsophisticated.

1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 70: He used to run a hayseed bank.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 28/1: Dr. Todd [...] struck a real old hayseed jury in the inquest on Verdant Bolley, who died under operation at Sydney Hospital.
1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ Out for the Coin 20: Nix on the hayseed habitation.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 May 2nd sect. 10/5: Beside breaking down he broke several small punters oí the hayseed variety, who went for a good win on him at the Canning course.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 39: Them hayseed bulls been thick as the fleas on Gay-cat hisself this day.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 228: I was just coming into a little hayseed town.
1939		W. Winchell On Broadway 23 June [synd. col.] Beverly Smith (the ace scribe of his day) outfitted himelf in a ‘hayseedy’ suit.
1941		Horsham Times (Vic.) 4 Mar. 1/3: A ‘Hayseed’ Party [...] a distinctly rural atmosphere and with the particpants appropriately attired.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 184: Just a country babe! Say I’d hate to write to the registrar in whatever hayseed county you really come from and ask him your real birth date!
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 21: The idea, after all, is to reach the destination – not to lock horns with hayseed cops along the way.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 119: He had done his thing with the locals, whipping out the old aw-shucks routine as the visting hayseed tycoon.
1980		Aus. Women’s Wkly 6 Aug. 1445/1: [headline] Hazzard’s Hayseed Hero.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 73: I’d like to lay a big shit on each one of your pointy little hayseed Australian heads.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 150: [of a country-trained/reared racehorse] [H]e’d wanted to back some hayseed hay-pirate or other in the race on the bill for the country nags.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 hayseed adj 1. non urban, un-hip; BUMPKIN.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 211: ‘The Hacienda. Hayseed heaven’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 175: [T]hese hayseed criminals, exemplary capitalists, had ruled the roost.