pickaninny

or pic·a·nin·ny, pic·ca·nin·ny

[ pik-uh-nin-ee ]

noun,plural pick·a·nin·nies.Older Use: Now Offensive.
  1. a term used to refer to a Black child.

Origin of pickaninny

1
First recorded in 1645–55; probably ultimately from Portuguese pequenino, diminutive of pequeno “small”; as a word for “small child,” pickaninny and its variants are widespread in English-based creoles of the New World and West Africa; compare Jamaican English pickney, West African English pickin “small child”

usage note For pickaninny

Pickaninny is a dated term, originally used in a neutral or even affectionate way in the West Indies, but now perceived as insulting.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pickaninny in a sentence

  • Picaninny Gully ended in a flat, thinly timbered, where there were only a few diggers.

    The Book of the Bush | George Dunderdale

British Dictionary definitions for pickaninny

pickaninny

/ (ˌpɪkəˈnɪnɪ) /


nounplural -nies
  1. a variant spelling (esp US) of piccaninny

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012