Nigger in the Woodpile

[David Bergdahl]

Fred Shapiro wrote:

> Another list serv is having a thread about the expression "nigger in the
> woodpile."  One participant is arguing stridently that one of the meanings
> of this phrase, an unacknowledged black forebear of a white child, is used
> only by blacks and is not used by whites.  DARE and the Random House
> Historical Dictionary of American Slang do not indicate such a restriction
> of usage.  Can anyone on this list shed any light on the question?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>

Then there's "an Ethiopian in the fuel supply" in an old W. C. Fields film.
McDavid's abridgement of Mencken (p. 383) quotes the DA to 1852: "a concealed
or inconspicuous but highly important fact, factor or 'catch' in an account,
proposal, etc."
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