[Ads-l] Antedating of the Euphemism "N Word"

Tue Apr 2 19:06:44 UTC 2024

Actually it must have come up as part of a search that retrieved a lot of hits, Dave just succeeded in finding it better than I did.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 2:52 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of the Euphemism "N Word"

Thanks, Dave.  I don't know why that article didn't come up in my Newspapers.com search.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 7:48 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of the Euphemism "N Word"

Here's one from 1981:

Musgrave, Jane. “Love is the Key to Mixed Marriages.” Chillicothe Gazette (Ohio), 17 July 1981, 7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

"Once she made it clear she wasn't going to take snide comments about her mother's choice in marriage partners the comments became more infrequent. She said she won’t stand for the use of what she calls the “N-word” in her presence."

There is also this poem from 1971 that uses "N":

Hodges, Frenchy Jolene. “What It Means to Be an “N.” Black Wisdom. Detroit, Broadside Press, 1971, 25. HathiTrust Digital Archive. (May no longer be available in HathiTrust. I found it during the pandemic when copyrighted material was available there.)

"If what is said reaches you
Though you don’t know where or when,
It’s a cinch you’ve had the experience
You know what it means to an 'N'."

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-----Original Message-----
From: "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2024 9:50pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Antedating of the Euphemism "N Word"

N-word (OED 1985 [20 June])

1985 _Philadelphia Daily News_ 14 Feb. 39 / 3 (Newspapers.com) The kid who was talking it, rapping, I think it's known as, stopped when he heard the 'n' word, which was pronounced with all of its six letters.

NOTE: I would welcome any earlier citations for "n-word" that anyone else can find.

Fred Shapiro

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