n. The fear of appearing unsophisticated and uncultured.
2004
A better strategy is to "be proud of what you do, grow it," Hill said. "Avoid rubeaphobia."
That's a word he coined meaning the fear of being thought a rube for not chasing every new economic development trend.
That's a word he coined meaning the fear of being thought a rube for not chasing every new economic development trend.
2000
I can't decide. Is good taste or chronic rube-aphobia at the heart of the opposition to the Kansas City CowParade?
1998 (earliest)
Still, there is a real context for Mrs. Clinton's remarks that goes beyond Arkansas to one of the more pervasive, if little-discussed, maladies of American life: rube-aphobia.
The term, which was first bandied about in Texas in the 1980's, does not refer to fear of bumpkins and hicks, but the opposite: the fear that unless you have the approval of the media powers and taste makers in Washington, New York and to a lesser extent Los Angeles, you're treated like a bumpkin or a hick.
The term, which was first bandied about in Texas in the 1980's, does not refer to fear of bumpkins and hicks, but the opposite: the fear that unless you have the approval of the media powers and taste makers in Washington, New York and to a lesser extent Los Angeles, you're treated like a bumpkin or a hick.