Nigger in the Woodpile

[Chase, Jeffrey]

Fred,

For what it's worth, everyone in my family is white.  I have certainly heard
the generation older than myself (the ones who would be around 60 years old)
use it before.

Of course, I don't know how one would DOCUMENT that...

Regards,
Jeff

Jeffrey E. Chase
Wang Government Services
"Have red pencil.  Will travel."
Opinions expressed in this e-mail are solely those of the author, and not
meant to imply endorsement by Getronics, Wang Government Services, or the
United States Government.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fred Shapiro [SMTP:fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 2:51 PM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Nigger in the Woodpile
>
> 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
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------