| 释义 |
piccaninny, pickaninny, n., (a.)|ˈpɪkəˌnɪnɪ|
Also 7 pickaninnie, picko-, 8 pickaniny, piga-, 9 pica-, pickininny; picanini, piccaniny, piccin, piccinini, piccney, picken, pickini, pickinny, pickne, pickney, picknie, pickny, pick'ny, picny; (in S. Africa) piccanini, piccanin, picannin.
[A West Indian Negro deriv. of Sp. pequeño or Pg. pequeno little, small (prob. a diminutive: cf. esp. Pg. pequenino very little, tiny), which was carried by Europeans to other parts of the world. See Note below.]
A. n. A little one, a child: the term (which now often gives offence when used by people of European extraction) refers in the West Indies and America to children of Black African ethnic origin; in South and Central Africa and in Australia to those of the aboriginal peoples; in the latter cases introduced by Europeans, but often adopted by the natives themselves. Also attrib.
a. In the West Indies and America. In the speech of West Indian Blacks freq. with uninflected pl.
1657R. Ligon Barbadoes 48 When the child is borne, (which she calls her Pickaninnie) she [a neighbour] helps to make a little fire nere her feet... In a fortnight, this woman is at worke with her Pickaninny at her back. 1681Will of Jas. Vaughan (of Antigua) in Misc. Gen. & Her. Ser. ii. IV. 255 To my sister Mrs. Hannah Bell, four negroes and one Pickoniny [printed Pickoning] boy. 1707Sloane Jamaica I. p. lii, Their children call'd Piganinnies or rather Pequenos Ninnos, go naked till they are fit to be put to clean paths, bring firewood [etc.]. 1790J. B. Moreton Manners & Customs West India Islands 152 The women..are obliged to..take their pickinnies (i.e. children) on their backs, to which they are tied with handkerchiefs. 1828Life Planter Jamaica 93 The pickeniny gang consisted of the children who were taken to the field. 1833Hood Doves & Crows iii, Bring all your woolly pickaninnies dear. 1847Knickerbocker XXX. 216 It might be very pleasant to be surrounded by half-a-dozen negro waiting-women, with their picaninnies. 1867L. M. Child Rom. Repub. ii. 16 The negroes at their work, and their black picaninnies rolling about on the ground. 1868T. Russell Etym. Jamaica Gram. 2 Pickne. Ibid. 6 Pickini—A child. African. 1907W. Jekyll Jamaican Song & Story 40 Now Toad have twenty picny. 1937R. Macaulay I would be Private ii. i. 147 That naked piccney. 1958J. Carew Wild Coast viii. 117 All you is, is a maugre, skin-and-bone pickny. 1969S. M. Sadeek Windswept & Other Stories 37 ‘I was working for the estate, until..’ ‘Until alyou get busy making picknie.’ 1974Practitioner CCXIII. 845 To ‘give pickney’ or to ‘breed’ [in Jamaica] is to get a woman with child. 1977Westindian World 3–9 June 4/1 It has been made very plain that quite a number of teachers in schools up and down de country are in many cases more dunce than de pickney dem teach themselves.
b. In Australia, and South and Central Africa. Also, the offspring of an animal.
1830R. Dawson Australia 12 (Morris) ‘I tumble down pickaninny here’,..meaning that he was born there. 1841R. Howitt Impressions Australia Felix (1845) 103 Two women, one with a piccaniny at her back. 1847Leichhardt Jrnl. xv. 520 Bilge introduced several old warriors..adding always the number of piccaninies, that each of them had. 1855in J. W. Colenso Ten Weeks in Natal Add. p. 3 What will the poor little piccaninnies do, Boy? 1889Mrs. C. Praed Rom. of Station 16 Three or four half-naked gins, with their picaninnies slung on their tattooed backs. 1893Voice (N.Y.) 14 Dec., Even the pickaninnies and pygmies of the Congo valley are..entitled to protection from drink. 1900S. Chambers Rhodesians 50 Attended by a sable piccanin. 1911East London (Cape Province) Dispatch 24 Nov. 7 (Pettman), Mothers nursing their picaninies and maidens listening to lovers rude. 1925Brit. Weekly 31 Dec. 340/2 A mother..crooned gently to her ‘piccin’ not more than a few weeks old. 1926Ibid. 27 May 158/1 A mischievous picannin..was weeding the vegetable garden. 1936I. L. Idriess Cattle King xxviii. 245 He met numerous blackfellow friends, they and their lubras and piccaninnies, all in fat good humour. 1953G. Durrell Overloaded Ark iii. 59 Na catar beef, sah, and 'e get picken for 'e back. 1961G. Greene Burnt-Out Case iv. i. 100 The piccin that stole sugar from the white man's cupboard. 1963Sydney Morning Herald 19 Nov. 6/4 The use of such words as ‘boy’, ‘lubra’ and..‘piccaninny’ to describe aborigines has been banned to Northern Territory welfare officers. 1966C. Sweeney Scurrying Bush xiv. 199 He guided me about half a mile up the road, the rest of the piccannins scampering behind. 1979P. Niesewand Member of Club ii. 21 The bantu we've chosen..is a piccanin called Elias.
c. humorously. A child, in general. (Also fig.)
1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Pickaniny, a young child, an infant; negroe term. 1817Scott Fam. Lett. May (1894) I. xiii. 425 The little pickaninny has my kindest wishes. 1859Thackeray Virgin. lxviii, A little box at Richmond or Kew, and a half-score of little picaninnies. 1899Westm. Gaz. 15 Dec. 12/1 She's Britannia's Picaninny, If she isn't very big! She's a Daughter of the Empire,..Natal!
B. adj. Very small; tiny, baby. spec. piccaninny dawn, piccaninny daylight (chiefly Austral.), earliest dawn, first light.
1707H. Sloane Voy. Jamaica I. p. lii, They have..Christmas Holidays, Easter call'd little or Piganinny, Christmas, and some other great Feasts. [1796Stedman Surinam (1813) II. xxvi. 268 Small, peekeen—Very small, peekeeneenee. 1835R. R. Madden Twelvemonth's Residence W. Indies II. 153 To..spend piccanini Christmas (Easter) dancing. 1848W. Westgarth Australia Felix viii. 104 The hut would be attacked before ‘piccinini sun’. 1849Pichardo Diccion. Prov. Voces Cubanas, Piquinini..una persona ó cosa pequeña. 1870in ‘Mark Twain’ Screamers (1871) xxv. 132 A pickaninny,..mud-turtle-shaped craft of a schooner. 1896J. T. Bent Ruined Cities Mashonaland 58 Anything small, whether it be a child, or to indicate that the price paid for anything is insufficient, they [Kaffirs] term piccanini. ]1876J. R. Green Lett. (1901) 439 A series which begins in the thirteenth century is a very young and pickaninny series. 1896Cosmopolitan XX. 353/1, I soon discovered a pickaninny, or baby walrus. 1903R. Bedford True Eyes lxi, By pickaninny daylight the mounted men were in motion. 1910Anderson & Cundall Jamaica Anancy Stories 37 Go a pickney mumma yard an' you sure fe get somet'ing. a1912‘T. Collins’ Buln-Buln & Brolga (1948) 107 Blackfellers mostly goes in for a piccaninny fire—jist three sticks, with the ends kep' together. 1936M. Franklin All that Swagger xvi. 153 At piccaninny dawn, the billy with the lid off was found rolling on the floor. 1953G. Durrell Overloaded Ark iv. 78 ‘Eh..aehh!’ he shouted, ‘napicken bushcat here for inside.’ 1970‘E. Lindall’ Gathering of Eagles viii. 101 The piccaninny dawn, that false lightening of the sky that fades to darkness before the sun finally makes its presence known. 1971Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 July 2/6 Before piccaninny daylight on June 14, Vernon Boundy..was standing on the southern bank of Tallebudgera's tidal estuary. 1974Sunday Mail Mag. (Brisbane) 15 Sept. 3/3 In the chilly piccaninny dawn we drove out to the Wyloo strip with kangaroos bounding along beside and in front of the truck.
[Note. Our earliest examples (17th c.), being from the formerly Spanish West Indies, with the existing Cuban Spanish piquinini (Pichardo Dicc. Voces Cubanas, 1849), suggest Spanish derivation; on the other hand, the Surinam form is more naturally derived from Portuguese, which moreover has the recognized dim. pequenino, not used in Spanish. Stedman gives peekeen, peckeeneenee in Eng. phonetic spelling; the Dutch of Surinam is ‘pikien, klein, weinig, jong; kind, jong, kroost’ (Focke, Neger-Engelsch Wbk. 1855). But, wherever first used, the word was prob. soon carried from one colony to another; it may even have arisen in the Portuguese possessions in Guinea, and have been carried by slaves to various parts of America; witness the readiness with which it has been adopted by natives in Africa and Australia, in the 19th c. The Cape Dutch form pikanini may have been brought from the Dutch West Indies, or acquired from English, or from Portuguese (to which also some attribute the Rhodesian use). Some have suggested that the word is not a dimin., but a combination, = Sp. pequeño niño little child, or Pg. pequeno negro, now in Surinam pikien-ningre ‘negerkinderen, kreolen’ (Focke). But the word is not confined to children, being essentially an adj. meaning ‘very little, tiny’.] |