woodpile

[buchmann]

I CAN ATTEST TO ITS USAGE IN THE 1940s AND '50s
BY SOUTHERN WHITES [BORN IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY], IT STRUCK ME [AS A CHILD] AS A VERY
ODD EXPRESSION.

[Btw, it also means: "anomalous situation" /
"something rotten in the State of Denmark."]

J-A  BUCHMANN
===========================================

"Douglas G. Wilson" wrote:

> At 09:15 AM 9/21/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >A Murie wrote:
> > > "Nigger in the woodpile" always meant some hidden nefarious thing, not
> >necessarily identified or even known.
> >
> >I have *never* heard the phrase used in this way.  It has always meant a
> >hidden element in the bloodline that makes the person have dark skin, hair,
> >eyes, etc., specifically if the rest of the family is very fair.  A similar
> >expression is "he/she belongs to the milkman," when the person being
> >described doesn't look like anyone else in the family.
>
> I have only heard the expression rarely in either sense (it's considered
> taboo or impolite by many). Usually it has meant "catch" or "unexpected
> problem" ("hidden nefarious thing"). On the few occasions when I
> encountered the "black ancestor" sense, I assumed a simple error versus
> deliberate metaphor or joke. But the "Random House Historical Dictionary of
> American Slang" shows both senses.
>
> RHHDAS shows the sense of (1) "hidden nefarious thing" from 1843, the sense
> of (2) "black ancestor" from 1953.
>
> It is my belief that the use of the expression in the first sense was
> virtually obsolete in many circles by the time of the origin of the second
> sense. Thus (I think) many people around 1950 still recognized the
> expression but no longer remembered what it meant, and therefore applied it
> to something different.
>
> -- Doug Wilson