antedate for "nigger" = exploited person, UK 1941 (OED 1963)

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Fri Jun 21 16:37:36 UTC 2013


On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 09:32:41AM -0700, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
>  “Since there are no niggers here, they had to create niggers. The poor are the niggers in this country." Wyndham Lewis in The Vulgar Streak, 1941.
>
> The OED defines this sense as "6. Esp. U.S. A person who is socially, politically, or economically disadvantaged or exploited; a victim of prejudice likened to that endured by African Americans," and gives as the earliest cite a 1963 sentence from Hunter Thompson.
>

Great find. Thanks Geoff.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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