| 释义 |
ˈniggerhead
Also nigger-head, nigger head.
[f. nigger n. + head n.1]
1. a. N. Amer. (See quot. 1859.) Also, N.Z., the tussocks formed in swampy ground by species of Carex, esp. C. secta.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer., Nigger-Heads, the tussocks or knotted masses of the roots of sedges and ferns projecting above the wet surface of a swamp. 1873Routledge's Young Gentlm. Mag. Mar. 236/2 Stepping from one flax⁓bush or nigger-head to the other. 1882T. H. Potts Out in Open 76 Penetrating the dead massy root of an old plant of nigger-head (carex virgata). 1904J. Lynch Three Yrs. Klondike 41 We plunged into a mire of muddy water and ‘nigger-heads’. ‘Nigger-heads’ are detachments of dark moss about a foot in diameter, lifting their heads just above the water or marshy subsoil. 1910R. W. Service Ballads of Cheechako 19 And there was the little lone moose trail... By muskeg hollow and niggerhead it wandered endlessly. 1921H. Guthrie-Smith Tutira xii. 103 The outer edges of these marshes were rough with nigger's-head (Carex secta). 1947J. H. Brown Outdoors Unlimited 314 The ptarmigan cackled in the manner of a Bronx cheer as it flew to a nearby nigger-head. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Apr. 356/3 Excellent crops and pastures..where before only nigger⁓heads, rushes, and swamp plants were flourishing. 1958P. Berton Klondike 44 The great clumps of grass ‘nigger⁓heads’ that marked the mouth of Rabbit. 1961C. Vyvyan Arctic Adventure xxi. 126 We had to negotiate about a mile of open country across nigger-heads.
b. U.S. A spherical prickly cactus belonging to the genera Ferocactus or Echinocactus.
1877H. C. Hodge Arizona 244 The kind [of cactus] commonly called the nigger head is round, of the size of a cabbage, and covered with large, crooked, catlike thorns. 1881[see barrel cactus]. 1940E. C. Jaeger Calif. Deserts (rev. ed.) 181 Closely allied to this is the Mohavean niggerhead. 1966E. Y. Dawson Cacti of Calif. 51 (heading) Nigger Heads (Echinocactus polycephalus).
c. U.S. The black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta, a yellow composite flower with a dark centre.
1893S. F. Price Flora of Warren County, Kentucky 15 Rudbeckia..fulgida... Cone flower. ‘Nigger-head’. 1931W. N. Clute Common Names of Plants 45 A number of composites with yellow rays and dark centers are commonly known as niggerheads, though the more polite term is black-eyed Susan. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 21 Niggerhead... The black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).
2. A rock, stone, lump of coral, etc.
1847H. Howe Hist. Coll. of Ohio 569 It was a saw mill, with a small pair of stones attached, made of boulders, or ‘nigger heads’, as they are commonly called. 1876J. Moresby Discov. New Guinea 3 A crowd of ‘nigger heads’, black points of coral rock, peep up in places. 1877Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 56 The bowlders, composed of quartz, ‘nigger heads’, and micaceous schists, are not large. 1885in Amer. Speech (1961) XXXVI. 295 The term ‘Nigger head’ is used by the Kanawha miners to designate a hard, heavy, impure coal often resembling cannel. 1886Ann. Rep. Smithson. Inst. (1889) ii. 523 Nigger head. (1) The black concretionary nodules found in granite; (2) Any hard, dark-colored rock weathering out into rounded nodules or bowlders; (3) Slaty rock associated with sandstone. 1898Morris Austral Eng., Nigger⁓head. Name given in New Zealand to hard blackstones found at the Blue Spur and other mining districts. 1901Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 634/1 He tightened his grip on the reins as he caught the dim outline of a treacherous nigger-head stone. 1908E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. ii. 57 Nothing was left of the big ship save some distorted fragments of iron jammed in among the nigger-heads of coral. 1916C. Sandburg Chicago Poems 41 A boy passes and throws a niggerhead that chips off the end of the nose [of a statue]. 1948E. N. Dick Dixie Frontier 4 Bears rolled ‘nigger head’ stones over and ate the grubs and field mice. 1956M. L. West Gallows on Sand viii. 89 We moored the skiff to a niggerhead, one of those jutting stumps of dead coral which are found all over the reefs, and which have the look of a frizzled skull on top of a stumpy neck.
3. = Negro-head 2. Also attrib.
1843J. Lumsden Amer. Memoranda (1844) 14 My next communication will probably contain full details of the methods adopted by the Virginian planters in the manufacturing of the nigger-head, ladies'-twist, [etc.]. 1860Nor' Wester (Red River Settlement) 28 June 4/5 After that I would smoke half a plug of ‘nigger-head tobacco’. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xxi. 194 You borry'd store tobacco and paid back nigger-head. 1893J. A. Barry S. Brown's Bunyip, etc. 24 He..had accepted as much strong ‘niggerhead’..as would have stocked a tobacconist's shop. 1894Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 355/1 Cigarettes..made of native grown tobacco or the rank cheap stuff called niggerhead twist. 1936Beaver Mar. 7/2 It is probably the lineal descendant of the nigger-head tobacco used in the Indian trade years ago, and as it came in ropes it was sold by the inch. 1956Crate & Williams We speak for Silent 3 Groceries—particularly tea and ‘nigger-head’ (a trade-tobacco for smoking and chewing)—are his more necessary ‘luxuries’.
4. A variety of cowrie.
1895F. A. Steel Rowans x, Do you ever find niggerheads about here now?
5. U.S. slang. (See quot.)
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 281 They were Democrats, and retorted upon violent Union men by calling them Niggerheads. 1946W. S. Knickerbocker 20th Cent. English 149 Niggerhead... After the Civil War it was used for a person in favor of full political equality for Negroes.
6. A type of fabric (see quot. 1950).
1892–3T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Fall & Winter 10/2 In the plain cloth jackets the materials are beavers, niggerheads, serges and worsted. 1950‘Mercury’ Dict. Textile Terms 366/1 Niggerhead Curl, a fancy dress cloth made from spiral yarn warp and mixture weft (cotton and wool).
7. (See quot.)
1927G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 119/1 Niggerheads, a name for bollards, and sometimes applied to winch heads. |