[Lexicog] cotton-picking

[David Tuggy]

Well, there was family of expressions, as I remember. "You (little)
cotton-picker!" (expressing exasperation) was one of them. It connoted
pretty strongly that the addressee was in some degree insignificant or
even contemptible, not a significant foe against whom one might be more
seriously angry.  This may more easily have been understood as (perhaps
euphemistically) calling the addressee a black, or perhaps a low-status
person (black or "white trash").  And some other usages expressed
exasperation without necessarily meaning the exasperation was caused by
tediousness.

I agree that the "tediosity" and scratchiness involved in picking cotton
almost certainly entered into the meaning in some usages where those
characteristics fit, like "these cotton-pickin' regulations".

I also agree that many people, including my friend and myself for many
years, used the word without a thought of it being racist. But I don't
think the reactions of those who took it as racist were totally
unfounded. I also confess to using the phrase "jew him down" without
thinking particularly of the Jews or the offense the phrase might cause
them.

This is, of course, very common. Many people say "Jesus Christ!" with no
thought of offending Christians. I remember the time a Jewish person
said to me "Jesus Christ, how do they expect us to understand this?" and
I replied, "Moses Prophet, I have no idea!". That was the last time I
heard that person use Jesus's name as an expletive.

Bottom line: phrases that can be used to offend (and may even have been
coined on purpose to be offensive) may also come be used innocently
without intention to offend. But it is good to know that they may be
offensive.

--David Tuggy

William J Poser wrote:

> I'm not sure that I see the point about "cotton-picking" being
> racist. While, at least in the US, the people who picked cotton
> were for a long time black slaves, as I understand it the phrase
> has nothing to do with who did the work, it has to do with the
> nature of the work. "cotton-picking" means "unpleasant and tediously
> detailed" because (I am told - as a northerner I have no experience
> of picking cotton) picking cotton involves pulling off each individual
> tuft of cotton (you can't just knock them off as you can many kinds
> of berries) and so is quite tedious and leads to repetitive motion
> injuries. I have the vague memory that there is also something
> scratchy on cotton plants.
> --
> Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
> http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/
> <http://www.ling.upenn.edu/%7Ewjposer/> billposer at alum.mit.edu
>
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