"critter"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

At a glance at the G-books 1852 edition of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" I see
(without checking for duplicates, etc.) approximately 30 instances of
"critter[s]"/"crittur[s]". The word seems to be "creature" in the usual
sense[s]. I think in a couple of cases it refers to horses, dogs, and
the like. I didn't attempt to identify the races of human referents, but
at my glance the word does not seem restrictive by race or even by species.

There is one instance in which a race-restrictive sense is superficially
apparent: "These critters an't like white folks ....", but I have the
impression that the word itself is still nonspecific here. Similarly an
isolated instance of "These people ain't like us Americans" applied to
[some or all] Englishmen would not imply the assertion that "people" has
a sense "Englishmen" IMHO. Probably there's a term for such
'over-interpretation' or 'over-generalization'? (But my interpretation
would depend on spoken stress: I assume it's "THESE critters" here but I
would think again if I took it to be "these CRITTERS".)

-- Doug Wilson

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