coon (was butterfly)

[Alan Hartley]

The OED's compilation is not (yet) as recent as DARE's, but here's what
it has to say for derivative senses of COON:

    2. Applied to persons:

    a. A nickname for a member of the old Whig party of the United
States, which at one time had the racoon as an emblem.
    (The nickname came up in 1839.)
    1848 Lowell Biglow P. ser. i. ix, A gethrin' public sentiment,
'mongst Demmercrats and Coons.   a1860 Boston Post in Bartlett Dict.
Amer. s.v., Democrats..rout the coons, beat them, overwhelm them.

    b. A sly, knowing fellow; a ‘fellow’.
    1832 Polit. Examiner (Shelbyville, Ky.) 8 Dec. 4/1, I was always
reckoned a pretty slick koon for a trade.   1839 Marryat Dairy Amer.
Ser. i. II. 232 In the Western States, where the racoon is plentiful,
they use the abbreviation 'coon when speaking of people.   1843 Simms
Guy Rivers 155 To be robbed of our findings by a parcel of blasted
'coons.   1860 Punch XXXIX. 227 (Farmer) Then baby kicked up such a row
As terrified that reverend coon.   1870 M. Bridgman R. Lynne II. xiv.
296 Dicky Blake's a 'cute little coon.   1881 J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i.
xxxiii, Jack they called him—a sort of half-wild little coon, that
nobody knowd much about.

    c. A Negro. slang. (Derog.)
    1862 Songs for the Times 3 Play up, Pomp, you yaller coon.   1892
Congress. Rec. 4 Feb. 856/1 Instead of seating one colored
Representative, they seated two,—two coons in place of the elected
Representatives of the people.   1903 Westm. Gaz. 18 May 3/2 The former
represented a lively..jovial coon—possibly ‘coon’ is not the right word,
which, however, is accepted here as modern slang for a nigger.   1948
Chicago Defender 23 Oct. 7/2 A lot of us are referred to as ‘nigger’,
‘coon’, ‘darky’, etc., right to our faces.   1969 Oz Apr. 46/3 You
might+deplore the way that the publicity was angled—poor old coon, he'll
thank us in the end.

    d. S. Afr. A Coloured reveller at Cape Town; esp. a member of
various groups which parade in carnival fashion through the streets