uppity

Gregory McNamee gm at GREGORYMCNAMEE.COM
Sat Sep 6 22:25:35 UTC 2008


Sorry, that last one got away from me before I could add the first OED
sightings of the adjective:

1880 J. C. HARRIS Uncle Remus 86 Hit wuz wunner deze yer uppity little
Jack Sparrers, I speck. 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Nov. 776/2 Grammy is
living contentedly enough with an ‘uppity’ young creature named Penny.
1952 F. L. ALLEN Big Change II. viii. 130 The effect of the automobile
revolution was especially noticeable in the South, where one began to
hear whites complaining about ‘uppity niggers’ on the highways, where
there was no Jim Crow.

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