w(h)igger

[Lynne Murphy]

Beverly Flanigan:

> The blend makes more sense with the 'h' though, assuming it's sometimes
> written.  I'm not sure I would have known where it came from with or
> without the 'h', but now that I know, the spelling with 'h' makes the
> origins more transparent.  (I thought it had something to do with wearing
> wigs....)

I've only seen it spelt as "wigger", and perhaps the origins are less
transparent that way (although with the 'h' I'd guess that it had something to
do with a defunct political party), but the 'h'-less spelling makes it just one
letter (as it is just one sound) from the epithet that it's modelled on.  So I
find the 'h'-less one more transparent, but of course this is probably just
because it is the thing I've seen in print.

Just checked using infoseek and altavista, and found three sites with "whigger"
with the appropriate meaning, including one song written about "whiggers", but
more with "wigger"--but it's hard to count because a simple search hits a lot
without the appropriate meaning.  For "wigger" I searched on "wigger | white" in
order to keep out all the German language sites.

Lynne