Nigger Heaven/Glossary of Negro Words and Phrases
arnchy: a person who puts on airs.
August ham: watermelon.
bardacious: marvellous.
berries, the: an expression of approbation.
blue: a very black Negro. Not to be confused with the Blues, Negro songs of disappointment in love.
Blue Vein Circle: after the Civil War the mulattoes organized themselves into a guild from which those who were black were excluded. This form of colour snobbery still persists in many localities.
Bolito: see Numbers.
boody: see hootchie-pap.
bottle it: equivalent to the colloquial English shut up.
buckra: a white person.
brick-presser: an idler; literally one who walks the pavement.
bulldiker: Lesbian.
charcoal: negro.
C. P. T.: Coloured people's time, i. e., late.
Counsellor: a title often given to lawyers among coloured people.
creeper: a man who invades another's marital rights.
daddy: husband or lover.
dicty: swell, in the slang sense of the word.
dinge: Negro.
dogs: feet. Not to be confused with hot-dogs, frankfurters inserted with mustard between two halves of a roll.
Eastman: a man who lives on women.
fagingy-fagade: a white person. This word and the corresponding word for Negro are theatrical hog Latin.
happy dust: cocaine.
high yellow: mulatto or lighter.
hoof: to dance. A hoofer is a dancer, and hoofing is dancing.
hootchie-pap: see boody.
jig: Negro.
jig-chaser: a white person who seeks the company of Negroes.
kinkout: hair-straightener.
kopasetee: an approbatory epithet somewhat stronger than all right.
mama: mistress or wife.
Miss Annie: a white girl.
Mr. Eddie: a white man.
monk: see monkey-chaser.
monkey-chaser: a Negro from the British West Indies.
mustard-seed: see high yellow.
Numbers: a gambling game highly popular in contemporary Harlem. The winning numbers each day are derived from the New York Clearing House bank exchanges and balances as they are published in the newspapers, the seventh and eighth digits, reading from the right, of the exchanges, and the seventh of the balances. In Bolito one wagers on two figures only.
ofay: a white person.
papa: see daddy.
passing: i. e., passing for white.
pink: a white person.
pink-chaser: a Negro who seeks the company of whites.
punkin-seed: see high yellow.
scronch: a dance.
shine: Negro.
smoke: Negro.
snow: cocaine.
spagingy-spagade: Negro.
struggle-buggy: Ford.
unsheik: divorce.
A Note on the Type in Which This Book Is Set
The type in which this book has been set (on the Linotype) is based on the design of Caslon. It is generally conceded that William Caslon (1692–1766) brought the old-style letter to its highest perfection and while certain modifications have been introduced to meet changing printing conditions, the basic design of the Caslon letters has never been improved. The type selected for this book is a modern adaptation rather than an exact copy of the original Caslon. The principal difference to be noted is a slight shortening of the ascending and descending letters to accommodate a larger face on a given body-size.
Set up and electrotyped by the Vail-Baillou Press, Inc., Binghamton, N. Y. · Printed and bound by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Mass. · English featherweight paper supplied by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York.