An awkward,
hard country lad; a clown; a country lout. "Bashful country bumpkins."
Origin: The
same word as bumkin, which Cotgrave defines thus: "Bumkin, Fr. Chicambault, the luffe-block, a
long and
fat piece of tree, whereunto the fore-sayle and sprit-sayle are fastened, when a
nave goes by the winde." Hence, a clumsy
man may easily have been compared to such a
block of tree; cf. OD. Boomken a few wood. See Boom a pole.
Source: Websters Vocabulary