[word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] in the woodpile

Posted by ESC on December 24, 2000

In Reply to: [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] in the woodpile posted by Liz on December 24, 2000

: I am very aware that this phrase is offensive, but it was used by someone I over heard recently, (much to their embarrassment as a black person was in the group listening to the speaker)! A friend with me at the time wondered where the expression came from and originated.

From a previous discussion:

A [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] IN THE WOODPILE (OR FENCE) - "Some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed; something suspicious or wrong; something rotten in Denmark. The sayings with 'fence' and 'woodpile' developed about the same time and about at the period 1840-50, when the 'Underground Railroad' was flourishing successfully. Evidence is slight, but because early uses of the expressions occurred in Northern states, it is presumable that they derived from actual instances of the surreptitious concealment of fugitive Negroes in their flight north through Ohio or Pennsylvania to Canada under piles of firewood or within hiding places in stone fences." From Heavens to Betsy! and Other Curious Sayings (1955, Harper & Row) by Charles Earle Funk.

: A second reference agrees with the time period when this expression "appeared." ".[word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] in the woodpile, a catch or hitch in a situation, a flaw, dates from 1852." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).

: This next bit of information should go without saying, but just so we're all clear on the subject, I am including it:

: "[word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy], [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] - When used by a white person to describe a black or African-American person, this is probably the most offensive hateful, hurtful term in the language today. Like Negro, the word derives ultimately from the Latin 'niger,' black. It is not an Americanism, the first recorded use of '[word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy]' being in a 1786 poem by Robert Burns, although variations on it, including 'negar', 'neger,'; and 'niger' are recorded before then. Though African-Americans do commonly use the word in different ways amongst themselves.blacks rarely if ever do so in the presence of whites. Since the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, when evidence of its use by a detective-witness was introduced, it often has been euphemistically called the [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy].Once commonly used expressions such as 'a [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] in the woodpile' (concealed but important information, a 'catch' in a situation) are rarely heard today." From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997) Lord, if that were only so.