Cotton-Pickin’

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name’s Pepper, and I’m calling from San Diego, California.

Hi, Pepper, what’s up?

Oh, nothing much. I had a question about, I had a friend from Arkansas, and we went to school together here at San Diego State. And we were talking, and then one time she said, we were like joking around, and she said, wait just a cotton-picking minute. And it was so funny because I’ve only heard it on old TV or cartoons and stuff, but I’ve never heard anyone actually say it. And I was wondering, where does it come from?

-huh. You’d never heard that before?

That’s so funny. I grew up saying that all the time. Does Mel Blanc do your voicing? What’s up, Thack? You did see it a lot in Bugs Bunny cartoons, right?

Yeah. Yeah, that’s the earliest use of it that I know of in print, actually. Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Yeah, isn’t that weird? Mm—

But, Martha, cotton picking, what does it mean to you? You’re not actually talking about being out in the fields picking cotton.

No, no, no, not at all. No, I think I picked that up from other Southerners who were using it as an expression that meant damned, you know, like a euphemism for damned.

Why cotton picking? Why cotton picking? You know, I’ve also seen variations like pea picking and corn shucking and chicken plucking.

Pea picking I’ve heard before. I don’t know that anyone in my family uses it, but I’ve certainly come across it by reading. Do you know that one, Pepper?

No, I’ve never heard of that one. Maybe you should try that one out on your friend.

Maybe. Using this this way, it’s an intensifier is what’s happening here. Whatever follows cotton picking is kind of exaggerated or emphasized, right?

Right. Mind your cotton picking business.

Right. It works the same way that the word honking does, which is my favorite intensifier. That’s a big honking sandwich you have there.

Well, the sandwich does not sound like a goose or a car horn, right? No, it’s just a way of emphasizing that it’s a big, big sandwich.

So get your cotton-picking hands off me means don’t just get your hands off me. Get your hands off me right now, right?

Yeah, exactly. Now, does either of you fear the idea that it might have racist roots, cotton-picking?

Well, I know that it doesn’t. That’s my thought it was. I know that it doesn’t. It does not have racist roots. It’s not racist.

Huh. Right. Was that your question?

I was wondering, like, yeah, like, is it, did it come from that? If it’s, like, supposed to be a negative connotation, then is, you know, that’s what I thought it was.

It’s not racist. Poor white people picked a lot of cotton, too.

Okay. Huh. Interesting. Well, so, Pepper, you’re okay.

Yeah. And so is your friend.

-huh. Thank you so much.

All right. Nice talking with you. Thank you.

-huh. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye. The email address is words@waywordradio.org, and the phone number is 1-877-929-9673.