cotton-pickingn.adj.
U.S.
A. n.
The harvesting of cotton; a social gathering for removing the seed from cotton.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > social event > social gathering > [noun] > gatherings for specific activity
apple paring1656
house raising1704
quilting1768
bee1769
sing-song1769
reading party1781
rocking1786
cotton-picking1795
rolling1819
picking bee1828
candy pulling1834
candy pull1845
taffy-join1854
barn-raising1856
taffy pulling1863
coffee shop1880
log-rolling1883
taffy pull1883
petting party1920
play date1975
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > picking or gathering > [noun] > cotton-picking
cotton-picking1795
1795 J. Pettigrew & E. Pettigrew Let. 3 Oct. in Pettigrew Papers (MS, Univ. N. Carolina) One of the students was banished..for going to a cotton picking after eight at Knight.
1835 J. H. Ingraham South-West II. xxxiv. 126 Placed in the field to take a spell at cotton-picking.
1845 Knickerbocker 25 426 A lazy nigger in cotton-pickin'-time.
1891 Boston (Mass.) Herald 9 Nov. Cotton Picking Machine..The wheels are four feet apart to enable it to cover a row of cotton plants.
1945 B. A. Botkin Lay My Burden Down 92 We didn't have no kind of cotton-pickings 'cept just pick our own cotton.
B. adj.
slang (originally southern U.S.). A general term of disapproval or abuse, = ‘damned’.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [adjective] > euphemisms for stronger oaths > for 'damn'
tarnation1784
tarnal1790
darned1815
dratted1857
dagnab1934
cotton-picking1958
1958 Post (N.Y.) 1 June M3 I don't think it's anybody's cotton-pickin' business what you're doing.
1968 J. Philips Hot Summer Killing (1969) iii. iii. 161 You have to be a hero or out of your cotton-picking mind.
1970 M. Kenyon 100,000 Welcomes xvii. 142 Damn Mickey McQuaid for ever bringing me to this pixilated, cotton-pickin' country.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.adj.1795