Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see swamp-rat

(US teen) sweat gathering between the cleft of the buttocks.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 swamp ass n. the effect of sitting and sweating a lot. i.e. trousers/shorts etc get wet and smell.

a contemptible person.

1983

A-Team Storybook 46: ‘Listen up, swamp breath,’ called Hannibal.

(US) illicitly distilled ‘moonshine’ liquor.

1930

Burlington Dly Times (NC) 19 Dec. 1/8: Proferred a dram of Alamance county ‘swamp dew’ [...] Doc shook his head.

a very unattractive woman; occas. man.

1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: swamp donkey n. A female bereft of physical beauty; tug boat; boiler; sea monster; steg.
2001		P. Meditzy ‘A Day In The Life Of...’ 29 Apr. 🌐 Anyway I get to the night club. There are a few ‘swamp donkeys’ and ‘salad dodgers’ hanging around including a few others that looked like they have been ‘ram raiding on scooters’.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 283: She’s actually a focking swamp donkey.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014.

1. a derog. name for an Italian; the inference is of utter stupidity.

1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 162: The black man was running loose among the swamp guineas of the Village.
1974		R. Price Wanderers 160: Angry glances. ‘Jungle Bunny,’ said Peter Udo. ‘Swamp Guinea,’ shot back Ray Barrett. ‘Han’kerchief Head,’ said Ricky Leopoldi. ‘Mountin’ Wop,’ said Curly.
1989		R. Adams Monsters and Magicians 111: A frigging heart attack ain’t murder, you crazy swamp-guinea.
1994		E.W. Count Cop Talk 249: He’s a fucking swamp guinea. He embarrasses me. l’m ashamed l’m ltalian.

2. (US) a derog. name for a black person [poss. misinterpretation of sense 1].

1967

Ragni & Rado ‘Colored Spade’ 🎵 I’m a / [...] / Cotton pickin’ / Swamp guinea / Junk man / Shoeshine boy.

(Aus.) a general term of abuse, usu. aimed at girls or women.

1905		Truth(Perth, WA) 7 Oct. 7 Oct. 5/2: Moat of those [railway workers] whose services were retained [...] are beer-bummers, lug-biters, and swamp-hogs.
1987		K. Lette Girls’ Night Out (1995) 187: Surfers are an amphibious, beach-dwelling species, who hunt in packs for females with ‘margarine legs’. You know, easily spread. Chicks are nicknamed bush pigs, swamp hogs, maggots, spitters or swallowers.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Real Life 27 June 11: They talked about women as bushpigs, swamp-hogs or maggots.
2005		Indep. 10 Sept. 22/1: Growing up as a surfie girl in Australia where women were referred to as ‘bushpigs’, ‘swamp hogs’ or ‘maggots’.

1. (US, also swamp-angel, swamp fox, swamp-rabbit) a rural Southerner from the southern coastal states; a Cajun; also attrib.

1855		W.G. Simms Forayers 494: ‘Hurrah for the old swamp-fox!’ [...] the troopers of the swamp-fox drew in their bridles, and yielded slowly and sullenly, before the advancing infantry of the British.
1882		Dly Astorian (OR) 18 Oct. 2/1: The ignorant [...] big-headed, soft-skulled, over-rated swamp angel who claims to edit the swamp paper.
1899		St Paul Globe (MN) 31 Dec. 11/6: This Arkansas swamp angel happened to take it.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 160: swamp-angel, swamp-rabbit, swamp-rat, n. A countryman from the swampy district.
1965		A. Green in Journal of Amer. Folklore 🌐 At one time or another Southern local colorists used these analogs for poor white: lubber, peckerwood, cracker, conch, sandhiller, redneck, cajun, woolhat, squatter, clayeater, sharecropper, linthead, swamprat, tarheel, hillbilly.
1968		Current Sl. II:3 11: Swamp rat, n. the girl back home as seen by your roommates.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 171: Swamp rat Usually, but not always, the same as Cajun. Specifically, anyone living in or coming from the great Southern swamps.
1983		I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 45: acadians: [...] coon-ass [also coonie] [...] frenchie, -y; frog [cf. frog for French and French Canadians]; swamp-rat.
2003		P. Cornwell Blow Fly (2004) 28: I’m not some mudbug, swamp-rat redneck.

2. (Aus.) a general term of abuse.

1990

T. Winton Human Torpedo 85: Swamp rat, they called him.

(US) rice.

1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 289: There are other terms in common use in the cabin and cook's galley [...] Potatoes are spuds, rice is swampseed, beans are tornadoes, snappers or band of music, and bean soup is snapper soup.
1955		Great Bend Trib. (KS) 2 July 3/4: Rice has a lot of names, ranging from ‘moonshine’ or ‘swamp seed’ to ‘John Chinaman’’.