n-heads

[Jonathan Lighter]

It also means 1) a hummock covered thickly with grass or weeds; 2) a dark-colored stone or boulder.  My guess is that Hoover was collecting rocks and stones, but other suggestions are welcome.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: n-heads
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Jan 30, 2005, at 10:50 PM, Michael McKernan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Michael McKernan
> Subject: n-heads
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> ROCHESTER UNION-SPY - Friday, March 17, 1871
> [Rochester, Indiana]
>
> http://www.fulco.lib.in.us/genealogy/Tombaugh/Newspaper%20Excerpts/
> Html/Newspape
> rs%201871-72.htm
>
>
>> CHRIS. HOOVER intends to have a good foundation under the brick house
>> he
>> proposes to erect on the corner of Jefferson and Meridian streets. He
>> has
>> collected a big pile of niggerheads for that purpose.
>
> Michael McKernan
>

So, it's also the name of something used in construction. Any idea what
it was? FWIW, my 1971 RHD defines "niggerhead" only as a nautical term
meaning "gypsyhead." Period. Was there really a time in this country
when ethnic and racial slurs were so common that a professional
lexicographer felt free to define one slur by another slur, without the
need for further explanation? Clearly, there was.

-Wilson Gray

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