Nigger in the Woodpile

[Fred Shapiro]

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


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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