Phrase used by Agatha Christie that’s now toxic

ONCE bandied around casually, the phrase ‘n***** in the woodpile’ originated in America in the mid-19th century before the abolition of slavery.

Collins English Dictionary defines the phrase – which it calls ‘old-fashioned and offensive’ – as ‘a hidden snag or hindrance’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as ‘a concealed motive or unknown factor affecting a situation in an adverse way’.

The Oxford Dictionary of Slang says the phrase, which it calls ‘now taboo’, is ‘applied to an unsuspected or hidden factor that has an adverse effect’.

How it first came into use is not entirely clear. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says the phrase ‘was originally a way of accounting for the disappearance of fuel. It then came to be used for any hidden snag or problem’. The reference to ‘disappearance of fuel’ is thought to allude to an outdated and prejudiced racist belief about the frequency with which black people stole property from whites.

Another theory about the phrase’s origin is that it alluded to escaped slaves who concealed themselves behind or in woodpiles to escape capture.

Whatever the precise circumstances of its genesis, the phrase entered into widespread usage in the 18 0s.

It became so mainstream that authors, including Agatha Christie as late as in her 19 2 Miss Marple novel They Do It With Mirrors, also used it.