click here to link to the online Oxford English Dictionary entry for
"nigger,"
of which the following is a copy (only available to computers on the
UofI network).
nigger nIg<e>(r), sb. Also niggar.
Etymology: Alteration of neger. Cf. also niger and nigre.
1 a A Negro. (Colloq. and usu. contemptuous.) Except in Black English
vernacular, where it
remains common, now virtually restricted to contexts of deliberate and
contemptuous ethnic abuse.
1786 Burns Ordination iv, - How graceless Ham leugh at his Dad, Which
made Canaan a
nigger.
1811 Byron in Mem. F. Hodgson (1878) I. 195 - The rest of the
world-niggers and what
not.
1818 H. B. Fearon Sk. Amer. 46 - The bad conduct and inferior nature
of niggars
(negroes).
1819 W. Faux Mem. Days Amer. (1823) 9 - Contempt of the poor blacks,
or niggers, as
they are there called, seems the national sin of America.
A. 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) I. 164 - A similar error has turned
Othello..into a rank
woolly-pated, thick-lipped nigger.
1867 Latham Black & White 127 - Niggers (they are not `coloured
persons' yet in the
South) are most artful flatterers.
1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 333/1 - What is wanted is a genuine nigger;
not a colored
person.
1931 D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings i. 11 - Waters.., like all
Englishmen, was ready
enough to admire and praise all foreigners except dagoes and niggers.
1934 G. B. Shaw On Rocks ii. 70 - Pandranath: you are only a silly
nigger pretending to be
an English gentleman.
1934 G. B. Shaw On Rocks 71, - I am called nigger by this dirty faced
barbarian whose
forefathers were naked savages worshipping acorns and
mistletoe..whilst my people were
spreading the highest enlightenment yet reached by the human race from
the temples of
Brahma... You call me nigger, sneering at my colour because you have
none. The jackdaw
has lost his tail and would persuade the world that his defect is a
quality.
1936 M. Mitchell Gone with Wind 401 - `You're a fool nigger, and the
worst day's work
Pa ever did was to buy you,' said Scarlett slowly... There, she
thought, I've said `nigger' and
Mother wouldn't like that at all.
1937 C. Himes in Black on Black 132 - Uncle Tomism, acceptance,
toadying-all there in its
most rugged form. One way to be a nigger. Other Negroes did it other
ways-he did it the
hard way. The same result-a nigger.
1948 [see coon sb. 2 c].
1948 G. Greene Heart of Matter i. i. 3, - I hate the place. I hate the
people. I hate the
bloody niggers. Mustn't call 'em that you know.
1948 G. Greene Heart of Matter ii. i. 179 - A clerk knocked and said,
`There's a nigger
for you, Wilson, with a note.'
1949 B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore p. xxiii, - In turning his
laughter on himself as well as
the whites, the Negro has taken over the objectionable word `nigger'
(though not `darky') and
made it a term of praise or blame.
1964 L. Hughes in J. H. Clarke Harlem iv. 251 - A klansman said,
`Nigger, Look me in the
face-And tell me you believe in The great white race.'
1966 Stage & Television Today 6 Oct., - When `Ten Little Niggers'
opened for a week's
run at Birmingham Theatre on Monday members of the co-ordinating
committee against racial
discrimination (CARD) staged a protest demonstration outside.
1968 C. Brown in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 232/1 - Perhaps the most
soulful word in
the world is `nigger'.
1969 D. L. Lee in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) ii. 286 - Change,
stop being an
instant yes machine. Change. Niggers don't change they just grow.
That's a change; Bigger
and better niggers.
1971 Black World Apr. 56 - Who the hell you think, nigger?
1972 D. Onyeama Nigger at Eton iii. 83, - I remember that in
conversation, some boys
occasionally used `nigger' in reference to black people. I never
dreamt that it was a racial
name and generally used with contempt; I just reckoned it was a
harmless slang word for a
black man.
1973 Black World Aug. 61/1 - Even credit-card niggers didn' really
trust banks.
1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Dec. 1536/1 - You do not reduce to only a
ticket-collector, only
an asthmatic, only a voter, only a politician, only a pools-winner,
only a nigger.
transf.
1889 Rider Haggard Allan's Wife 262 - As for that there claim, well,
she's been a good
nigger to me.
b Loosely or incorrectly applied to members of other dark-skinned
races.
1857 Dufferin Lett. High Lat. 251 - This relationship with Polynesian
Niggers, the native
genealogists would probably scout with indignation.
1865 Trevelyan Cawnpore 47 - In the eyes of an English
planter..bazaar-porters and
Rajahs..are niggers alike one and all.
1891 Melbourne Argus 7 Nov. 13/5 - The natives of Queensland are
nearly always spoken
of as `niggers' by those who are brought most directly in contact with
them.
1941 I. L. Idriess Great Boomerang xxii. 169 - The cranky nigger who
was on the job
broke the only shovel.
1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1968) 6 - No grandson of mine,..is going
to be brought up
by them thieving, godless, nigger Detwinters.
1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven xviii. 312 - When that old nigger went past
she turned up her
nose.
c to work like a nigger, to work exceptionally hard. orig. U.S.
1836 C. Gilman Recoll. Southern Matron in Southern Rose 23 July 186/1,
- I have toiled
night and day, I've worked like a nigger, and more than any nigger.
1861 Geo. Eliot Let. 13 Apr. (1954) III. 404 - Charles..will..work
like a nigger at his music.
1880 Mark Twain Tramp Abroad 40 - He laid into his work like a nigger.
1889 E. Dowson Let. 19 May (1967) 80, - I have simply worked like a
nigger this week.
1920 R. Fry Let. 20 June (1972) II. 481, - I have worked like a nigger
to arrange it [sc. an
exhibition] well.
1931 D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings ix. 99 - Dalziel has been working
like a nigger all
day, getting him identified by his family and by the station-master at
Pinwherry and by the
people at Larne.
d a nigger in the woodpile (or fence): a concealed motive or unknown
factor affecting a situation
in an adverse way. orig. U.S.
1852 in Kans. Hist. Quarterly (1942) XI. 235 - No `nigger in the wood
pile' here..; white
men are at the bottom of this speculation.
1862 Congress. Globe 3 June 2527/1 - [These gentlemen] spoke two whole
hours..in
showing-to borrow an elegant phrase, the paternity of which belongs, I
think, to their side of
the House,-that there was `a nigger in the wood-pile'.
1897 Congress. Rec. 18 Feb. App. 61/1 - Like a great many others
ignorant of facts, he
finds `a nigger in the wood pile' when there is neither wood pile nor
nigger.
1911 Woodrow Wilson in Outlook 11 Aug. 944 - If you go through the
schedules you will
find some nigger in every wood pile.
1930 Cambridge Daily News 24 Sept. 7/6 - Unless..there is a nigger in
the wood pile,..the
shares ought to be worth a mild flutter at round 8s. 6d.
1952 A. Christie They do it with Mirrors xii. 109 - Well now, let's
have your point of view.
Who's the nigger in the woodpile? The G.I. husband?
1958 Listener 13 Feb. 285/1 - `The starry heaven that we know..is
inside us.'.. The nigger in
the woodpile is to be found in the word `know'.
1958 A. Gilbert Death against Clock 72 - The nigger in the woodpile on
this occasion
being an elderly spinster of decided views.
1960 Daily Tel. 16 Jan. 8 - This seems to be the nigger in the
woodpile-the woodpile being
an industrial recovery and activity remarkable by any standard.
1974 M. Gilbert Flash Point ii. 19 - It wouldn't have been easy to
spot... It's taken Jonas
himself all this time to spot the nigger in the woodpile.
1850 California Courier (San Francisco) 4 Sept. 2/6 - The majority of
the papers,
however, think that there `is a nigger in the fence' somewhere.
1888 B. Harte Phyllis of Sierras i. iii. 90 - Ef he aint scooped up by
Jenny Bradley he'll
guess there's a nigger in the fence somewhere.
1911 H. Quick Yellowstone Nights xi. 286 - He's always looking for a
nigger in the fence.
2 a The black caterpillar of the turnip saw-fly.
1840 Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 584 - Athalia centifolić is extremely
destructive to turnips, its
larva being known under the name of the Nigger, or Black Jack.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 774 - The larvć are known in different
parts of the country
by the names of black caterpillar, blacks, nigger, canker, etc.
1874 Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. i. 7 - To this group belongs the
nigger, or black caterpillar
of the turnip.
b (See quot.)
1855 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 120 - Nigger, the name of lady-bird larvć
in hop grounds.
c (See quot.)
1855 Ogilvie Suppl., - Nigger, a species of holothuria, so called by
the Cornish fishermen. It
is very common in deep water off the Deadmen.
d Used in Comb. to denote a dark shade of colour, as nigger-brown
(also ellipt.), -grey, -pink.
1914 Lady's Pictorial 4 July p. v (Advt.), - Soft Taffeta Hat..In
Black,..Nigger, Mole, and
White.
1915 Home Chat 2 Jan. 11/1 - Nigger-brown cloth.
1917 Home Chat 3 Nov. 139/2 - Nigger or, as it is now called, `Zulu',
is also to be seen.
1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England 116 - She was wearing a wide
hat of grey
straw, and a loose, swinging dress of nigger-grey velvet.
1923 [see desert-brown adj.].
1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 124 - On each table there were
niggerpink and
vermilion paper flowers.
1960 V. Williams Walk Egypt 89 - A dry-goods store showed a dress of
`nigger-pink'.
1973 Times 12 Nov. 4/4 - Decorations in autumnal colours, that is,
coral pink and what used
to be nigger brown.
3 U.S. a A form of steam-engine used on ships; a steam-capstan
employed in hauling river-boats
over bars or snags. b A strong spiked timber by which logs are canted
in a saw-mill.
1867 J. A. Hosmer Trip to States by Yellowstone & Missouri 58 - The
boat..struck the
bar; they then began to work with the spars and nigger, and at two
o'clock we got off.
1875 Knight Dict. Mech.
1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds 378 - Then oaths, spars,
`nigger-engine' and all the other
available machinery were set in operation.
1882 Harper's Mag. Jan. 175/2 - One of the `nigger' engines is
suddenly called into service
to tighten a two-inch rope, or wind up a discarded cable.
1890 Cent. Dict.
1900 Atlantic Monthly LXXXV. 103/2 - `Carriages', bright with red and
green
lanterns..rush to and fro, seizing the logs as they come from the
`kickers' and `niggers'.
1910 S. E. White Rules of Game i. v. 32 - When the car had flown back
to its
starting-point, the `nigger' rose from obscurity to turn the log
half-way round.
1929 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 482/1 - A steam or air `nigger' (mechanically
operated steel arms)
helps to place the log in the proper position.
4 a In Soap-making: (see quot.).
1887 Dittmar & Paton in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 203 - On settling a
dark-coloured `nigger', or
under-lye separates out.
b U.S. An impurity in the insulating covering of an electrical
conductor.
A. 1890 Sci. Amer. LIV. 308 (Cent.), - The consequence..might be that
what the workmen
call a nigger would get into the armature, and burn it so as to
destroy its service.
c slang. (See quot. 1960.)
1934 Tit-Bits 31 Mar. 12/1 - The film world has a colourful
compilation of expressions unlike
those in other walks of life. `Niggers' are not men of colour, but
blackboards used to `kill'
unwanted reflections from the powerful lights.
1937 A. Buchanan Film Making iii. 52 - `Niggers' are wooden oblong
screens used to
`nigger-off' or shield light from faces, or shadows on walls, and so
`Her face needs a nigger' is
not such an alarming statement as it sounds to the uninitiated.
1957 Manvell & Huntley Technique Film Music ii. 32 - In silent film
days we had all the
apparatus we needed in the studios, with miles of cables, banks of
arcs, and great screens
(known in the industry as `niggers') to reflect light and help shadow
effects.
1960 O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & TV 89 - Nigger, an adjustable Mask on a
stand, used on
the Floor to shield the camera from, or to achieve effects with,
lights.
5 Comb., chiefly objective, as nigger-breaker, -chaser, -dealer,
-driver, -killer, -lover, -stealer,
trader, worship(per; nigger-driving, -looking, -loving adjs.
1845 F. Douglass Narr. Life F. Douglass 57 - All of this added weight
to his reputation as
a `*nigger-breaker'.
1921 C. E. Mulford Bar-20 Three xvi. 217 - Most likely they'll be
*nigger-chasers th' way
some folks'll be steppin' lively to get out of th' way.
1853 F. W. Thomas John Randolph 285 - You know Robinson the
*nigger-dealer, who
has the pen down town.
1833 J. Neal Down Easters I. 70 - When the *nigger-drivers falls out
among themselves.
1861 Freeman in Stephens Life (1895) I. 270 - Let the nigger-drivers
go to the devil their
own way.
1891 C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 198, - I never came across such a beast
of a nigger driver as
this fellow Cole.
1856 Olmsted Slave States 108 - If a man does not provide well for his
slaves..he gets the
name of a `*nigger killer'.
1890 Cent. Dict. s.v. Grampus, - The whip-tailed scorpion,..also
called mule-killer,
nigger-killer.
1837 Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 99 - He has a half-caste, dropsical wife,
and a sickly
*nigger-looking child.
1909 R. E. Knowles Attic Guest xiii. 178 - `Then you can take what you
deserve, curse
you for a *nigger-lover,' I heard the Colonel retort madly.
1924 American Mercury Feb. 135/2 - Shorty-Nigger-lover! He throws the
money in her
face.
1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel ii. 140 - `Niggerlover,' yelled Joe
in her ear... Janey
began to cry.
1958 Church Times 21 Nov. 6/4 - You can call a man a Kaffir-Boetie in
Johannesburg and
a nigger-lover in the Southern States; but both mean precisely the
same thing and have the
same accent.
1959 Encounter Dec. 45/2 - They nick our boys and let the Spades go!..
Nigger-lovers!
1972 Guardian 3 July 8/2 - Black Mountain College..was a seat of free
love, communism,
and nigger-lovers.
1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn 3 - Mrs Zapp was too conscientiously
dolorous to be much
cheered by the sympathy of a *nigger-lovin' Yankee.
1962 Guardian 3 Oct. 1/6 - It is still wise not to..admit you
represent such a Nigger-loving
Red publication as the `Guardian'.
1975 J. Rathbone Kill Cure iii. iv. 106 - You nigger-loving bitch.
1839 R. M. Bird Adventures R. Day I. xxv. 181, - I was `a kidnapper, a
Georgeye
*nigger-stealer'.
1884 Mark Twain Huck. Finn xxxiii. 314 - Only I couldn't believe it.
Tom Sawyer a
nigger-stealer.
1853 F. W. Thomas John Randolph 285 - He's not in favor of these
regular *nigger-traders
is he?
1884 Mark Twain Huck. Finn viii. 60 - But I noticed dey wuz a nigger
trader roun' de
place considerable lately en I begin to get oneasy.
1862 Russell in Times 29 Jan., - The Conservative masses, which lie
between negrolatry or
*nigger-worship and Secession.
1866 Cornh. Mag. Jan. 37 - The contempt which they..have expressed for
*nigger-worshippers during the Jamaica troubles.
6 attrib. (passing into adj.).
a Belonging to the Negro race; black-skinned. nigger-baby, -blood,
boy, girl, -lips, mouth; also
nigger-blooded, -skinned adjs.; nigger-dead adj.; nigger minstrel, one
of a group of
entertainers performing songs and dances typical of or based on
plantation life in the Southern U.S.,
freq. by white men with blackened faces; also ellipt., nigger.
1872 De Vere Americanisms 117 - The real *nigger baby is known under
the name of
pickaninny.
1833 J. Neal Down-Easters I. 66 - If there's a drop of *nigger-blood
in 'em, they'll always
show it in their temper.
1932 W. Faulkner Light in August v. 96 - `Take your black hand off of
me, you damn
*niggerblooded-' The hand shut down again.
1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 207 - Nobody there, I guess, but a
*nigger boy.
1970 R. D. Abrahams Positively Black ii. 26 - `Nigger boy,' he said to
me, `how'd you
like to meet your maker right now?'
1970 W. Ford in O. Coombs We speak as Liberators 43, - I would tell of
being Black and
Proud and Black and Loud and Black and Bowed and Black and
*niggerdead.
1836 Marryat Pirate iv, - You've been sweet upon that *nigger girl.
1842 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Broth. Birch. xlv, - Their *nigger
inhabitants [devils]
shook in their hoofs.
1922 Joyce Ulysses 219 - From the hoardings Mr. Eugene Stratton
grinned with thick
*niggerlips at Father Conmee.
1860 A. J. Munby Diary 17 Mar. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 56 - My
`comic' friend
suggested that I should apply to certain `*niggers', who had just
bowed themselves off the
stage... In this den were two or three men with blackened faces,
taking off their shabby nigger
costume.
1860 E. Cowell Diary 13 Sept. in Cowells in America (1934) 155 - A
Company of `nigger
minstrels' are to be here tomorrow night.
1883 Black Shandon Bells xvii, - He..made sure he was about to be
serenaded by a
nigger-minstrel.
1917 A. Waugh Loom of Youth ii. i. 93 - And do you think he really
imagines he is doing
any good to his form by giving that nigger minstrel entertainment up
there?
1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. i. 13 - Nellie Bligh..was the
heroine of a
mid-nineteenth-century nigger minstrel song by Stephen Foster.
1922 Joyce Ulysses 365 - The dark one [sc. girl] with the mop head and
the *nigger mouth.
1938 - *Nigger-skinned [see fawn-eyed adj.].
b Of or belonging to, occupied by, Negroes, as nigger culture,
dialect, emancipation, land,
melody, music, quarters, show, song. Also transf.
1970 J. B. Cole in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) iii. 493 - When
blacks refer to
`*Nigger culture', they often very explicitly speak of soul and style.
1834 Knickerbocker III. 445 - And I would say too, that although
mighty smart, and a
mighty smart chance, mighty big, and mighty little was excellent
`*nigger' dialect, yet it
was not so refined, as an orator might use.
1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxi, - He has been, and is, the advocate..of
*Nigger
emancipation.
1834 R. H. Froude in Rem. (1838) I. 380 - *Niggerland is a poor
substitute for the limen
Apostolorum.
1846 Knickerbocker XXVIII. 244 - Captain Marin would give a touch from
a sea-song, or
a specimen of a `*nigger-melody'.
1857 J. D. Borthwick Three Yrs. in Calif. xii. 212 - My entertainers,
producing two violins,
favoured me with a selection of Nigger melodies.
1873 Miss Braddon Lucius Davoren I. Prol. ii. 21 - Perhaps you could
oblige us with a
nigger melody.
1894 G. du Maurier Trilby I. iii. 219 - He..can even scream with
laughter at..a nigger
melody.
1948 A. Lomax in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 472/1 - If you like this
*nigger music.
1856 Olmsted Slave States 61 - You'll see some *nigger-quarters.
1856 C. E. De Long in Calif. Hist. Soc. Q. (1930) IX. 60 - Went to a
*nigger show.
1884 Mark Twain Huck. Finn xxvi. 261 - They never go to the circus,
nor theatre, nor
nigger shows, nor nowheres.
1909 R. E. Knowles Attic Guest xiii. 156 - They'll be flaunting that
Uncle Tom's Cabin
nigger show under your noses.
1844 United Service Jrnl. XLIV. 21 - He was never at rest,-now singing
a *nigger song on
the deck.
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 273/1, - I sell ballads and manuscript
music.., which is
`transposed'..from the nigger songs.
c In special uses, as nigger caterpillar, -hair, -jockey, Latin
Negroes (see quots.); nigger cloth
= Negro cloth (Negro 7); nigger corner U.S., a part of a public
building to which Negroes were
confined; nigger fish, a small grouper, Cephalopholis fulvus, found in
the West Indies and off the
coast of Florida; = cony, coney sb. 7 b; nigger goose N. Amer. local
(see quots.); nigger
heaven U.S. slang, the top gallery in a theatre; nigger heel Naut.
(see quot.); also nigger-heeled
a. (see quot. 1961); nigger hunt, the organized pursuit of Negroes for
the purpose of attacking
them; so nigger-hunter, -hunting; nigger lice U.S., informal name of
the prickly awns of various
species of plants, esp. of the genus Desmodium; nigger luck,
exceptionally good luck; nigger
shooter U.S. slang, a catapult; nigger-stick U.S. slang (see quot.
1974); nigger toe U.S., a
Brazil nut.
1850 Loudon Encycl. Gard. (ed. 2) 498 - The black jack, or *nigger
caterpillar, being the
larva of Athalia centifolić.
1857 Chambers's Jrnl. 3 Jan. 3/2 - The garments of..copper-coloured
*nigger cloth.
1860 J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career iv. 61 - You see he sells
some of his nigger cloth
for goods.
1955 W. Foster-Harris Look of Old West i. 38 - Typically the cloth was
linsey-woolsey...
`Nigger cloth' it was called. It had been much used for slaves'
garments, [etc.].
1894 Mark Twain in Century Mag. June 233/1 - In the `*nigger corner'
sat Chambers.
1876 G. B. Goode Catal. Fishes Bermudas 60 - The red form corresponds
to Terranus
ouatalibe, and is known as the *Nigger-fish.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 321 - Next in importance to the Plaice,
comes the Flat
Fish, Pseudopleuronectes Americanus... New York anglers call it the
`Nigger Fish'.
1917 T. G. Pearson Birds of Amer. I. 97/2 - The Cormorants have many
local names, such
as `Shag', `Lawyer', and `*Nigger Goose'.
1941 R. Faherty Big Old Sun 313 - You can eat curlew, or kill duck or
coot or
niggergoose if they come flying out yonder.
1947 National Geographic Mag. Sept. 339/1 - A large flight of
cormorants, called there
[sc. in North Carolina] `nigger geese', passed close aboard.
1957 W. L. McAtee Folk-Names Canad. Birds 5 - Double-crested
Cormorant..nigger
goose (in allusion to its colour and its goose-like appearance,
especially when in flight in the
V-formation so closely associated with the common Canada goose).
1852 Smithson. Contrib. Knowl. V. ii. 41 - This plant [Polysiphonia
arietina] is common
in various places in Long Island Sound... `Pooh! that's what we call
"*nigger-hair"'.
1878 A. Daly in J. F. Daly Life A. Daly (1917) 249 - There is a
`*Nigger Heaven' (as the
third tier is called in Troy) here, & as 'tis very capacious I have
been liberal with my pencilled
passes.
1931 D. Stiff Milk & Honey Route xiv. 151 -
These..entertainments..have raised their prices
beyond the reach of the hobo, unless he wants to go to `nigger
heaven'.
1973 A. Dundes Mother Wit 222 - This extension or transformation of
the `Nigger Heaven'
stereotype has no doubt contributed to the continued currency of
Harlem folk speech.
1901 Rudder XII. 302/2 - The after leech would take an incurve or
`*nigger heel', as
sailmakers call it.
1922 C. G. Davis How Sails are Made (ed. 2) 63 - A double-bighted sail
would, if not
carefully handled and hauled out too hard on peak and clew, become
`*nigger-heeled', as a
hollow leech was called.
1934 Yachting Monthly LVII. 11/1 - We were watching a hawse-fallen
sloop beating in
under a badly nigger-heeled mainsail.
1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 150 - Niggerheeled, said of the leech
of a sail that curves
inward of a line from peak to clew, and is therefore not roached.
1834 Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. III. 135/3 - When a slave runs away..a
party is made up for a
*nigger hunt.
1940 E. Caldwell Trouble in July x. 165 - This ain't no
nigger-hunt-this here's a jawing
match!
1959 Encounter Mar. 87 - The young `*nigger-hunters' of Notting Hill.
1834 Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. III. 135/3 - In Kentucky..*nigger-hunting
is a favourite sport.
1958 Encounter Dec. 4/2 - They had then armed themselves,..and had
gone on what they
described..as a `nigger-hunting expedition'.
1971 in C. Mullard Black Britain (1973) iv. xi. 142 - The racists, who
were no doubt nigger
hunting, as they call it, felt that this was easy meat.
1838 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. ii. iii, - A *nigger-jockey..is a
gentleman that trades in
niggers,-buys them in one state, and sells them in another, where they
arn't known.
1859 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 65 - It is in perpetual conflict with
the rules of good
Latinity,..partly from the addle-headed understanding of the
characters supposed to write this
*nigger Latin.
1933 Sun (Baltimore) 11 Sept. 6/7 - The iron weed with its deep color,
and..great clumps of
`*nigger lice'.
1940 H. L. Mencken Happy Days 43 - Sometimes a black-hearted boy would
sneak into
the adjacent brickyard, which was covered in large part with Jimpson
weeds, plantains and
other such vegetable outlaws, and return with a large ball of
nigger-lice.
1946 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Oct. 12/3 - When I spoke the other day of
`nigger lice', I was
referring to the tick trefoil, its scientific name.
1851 R. Glisan Jrnl. Army Life (1874) 90, - I occasionally made him a
little envious by my
*nigger-luck, as he is pleased to term it.
1900 R. H. Savage Midnight Passenger (1901) 135 - It has been a great
stroke of nigger
luck.
1909 Dialect Notes III. 352 - You can't beat me playing dominoes. It's
jest your nigger-luck
that gets away with me.
1876 E. W. Heap Diary 26 Feb. in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. (1969) lii.
53, - I had a job on
hand making *Nigger shooters for Dr's children.
1883 Sweet & Knox On Mexican Mustang through Texas 339 - Just about
the time
people have got used to tops buzzing about their ears, the
`nigger-shooter' mania breaks out.
1901 Ade Forty Mod. Fables 172 - All you wanted to do was to tear out
with those Toughs
and kill Birds with Nigger-Shooters.
1963 R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. vi. 284 - In the South it
[sc. a slingshot] is
still sometimes called a nigger-shooter.
1971 Guardian 18 Sept. 11/7 - Conditions inside American prisons...
Prisoners live their
lives at the end of gun barrels and what are often known as
`*nigger-sticks'.
1973 Black Panther 15 Sept. 17/3 - They were attacked and brutally
beaten by 50 to 60
guards armed with tear gas, plexiglass shields and four-foot long
`nigger sticks'.
1974 Guidelines to Volunteer Services (N.Y. State, Dept. Correctional
Services) 42 -
Niggerstick, officer's baton.
1896 Dialect Notes I. 421 - *Nigger toes: for Brazil nuts.
1958 J. M. Lacy in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 597/2 - He buys..nuts
called `nigger
toes'.
1973 Times 27 Aug. 5/8 - In Virginia brazil nuts are called
nigger-toes and chewed with
great relish.
Hence 'niggerdom, collectively. 'niggerish a., pertaining to,
characteristic of, the Negro.
'niggerism, (a)Negro blood; (b)a term or expression peculiar to
Negroes. 'niggerling, a little
Negro.
1862 Congress. Globe 28 Mar. 1414/2 - New England, where they hate
*niggerdom worse
than the devil.
1868 Good Words 1 Oct. 603/2 - The conquering nigger..caught many of
the Aborigines,
blacked them over, and sent them off to proclaim the glories of
Niggerdom.
1876 Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly xxx, - The modern Arabs, the
gipsies, niggerdom in
general.
1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 67 - Ye great *niggerish lookin',
wap-sided haw.
1866 Atlantic Monthly XVIII. 79 - When I say `colored', I mean one
thing, respectfully; and
when I say `niggerish', I mean another, disgustedly.
1866 Atlantic Monthly, XVIII. 79 - My Auntie's piety was not of the
niggerish kind.
1844 Fraser's Mag. XXIX. 656 - An individual tainted even in the
eighth degree with
*niggerism.
1844 St. Louis (Missouri) Reveille 24 Nov. 2/4 - Scrub and whitewash
your spiritual
niggerism, or you will forever rest in the valley of Sheol!
1856 Illinois State Register (Springfield) 19 June 2/1 - For every
democrat who deserts to
niggerism, one hundred old line whigs join the democracy against it.
1873 Porcupine 19 Apr. 38/3 - For the occasional dash or suspicion of
niggerism in the
mangling of the words, common custom and coincidence will quite
account.
1883 Winthrop Edwin Brothertoft ii. v, - [To] ventriloquize derisive
niggerisms through the
larynx.
1970 G. Jackson Let. 10 June in Soledad Brother (1971) 33 - He and my
mother went to
great pains to impress on me that it was the worst form of niggerism
to hook and jab..at other
blacks.
1842 Hood Black Job viii, - All the little *Niggerlings emerge As lily
white as mussels.
back
On Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:17:53 -0400, "Huckleberry Hoshimoto"
<huckleberr...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>It sucks back!!!!
>
>