pickaninny

[pik-uh-nin-ee]

pick·a·nin·ny

[pik-uh-nin-ee]
noun, plural pick·a·nin·nies. Offensive.
a black child.


Origin:
1645–55; probably ultimately < Portuguese pequenino, diminutive of pequeno small; as a word for “small child,” pickaninny and its variants are widespread in English-based creoles of the New World and West Africa; compare Jamaican English pickney, West African English pickin small child
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To pickaninny

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Pickaninny is always a great word to know.
So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
Collins
World English Dictionary
piccaninny or esp (US) pickaninny (ˌpɪkəˈnɪnɪ)
 
n , pl -nies
1.  offensive a small Black or Aboriginal child
2.  (modifier) tiny: a piccaninny fire won't last long
 
[C17: perhaps from Portuguese pequenino tiny one, from pequeno small]
 
pickaninny or esp (US) pickaninny
 
n
 
[C17: perhaps from Portuguese pequenino tiny one, from pequeno small]

pickaninny (ˌpɪkəˈnɪnɪ)
 
n , pl -nies
a variant spelling (esp US) of piccaninny

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT