pale-face
(ˈpeɪlfeɪs)
1. A person who has a pale face; a name for a white man attributed to the North American Indians.
| 1822 in G. A. McCall's Lett. fr. Frontiers (1868) 72 [At a masquerade ball, a man dressed as] an Indian chief..thus accosted him,—‘Ah, Paleface! what brings you here?’ 1831 Ibid. 226. 1826 F. Cooper Mohicans iv, ‘The pale faces make themselves dogs to their women’, muttered the Indian, in his native language. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunters xxxviii. 292 They know it to be the war-trumpet of the pale faces! 1895 S. R. Hole Tour in Amer. 237 Julius Berge was the first pale-face born here [Whitewater] some fifty-four years ago. |
2. In American Blacks' use, a contemptuous term for a white man.
| 1945 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 637 The Negroes use various other sportive terms for whites, e.g., pale-face, chalk and milk. 1964 N.Y. Times Mag. 23 Aug. 62/2 Whitey, the latest word of contempt for a white person, superseding ofay and..paleface. 1971 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1969 li. 33 To Negroes, a white convict is a..paddy, pale face. 1971 E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 145 Pale face, (B) white person. |