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coon

(ko͞on)

1. Informal A raccoon.

2. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a black person.

[Short for raccoon. Sense 2, perhaps after Zip Coon, an African-American character (depicted as an upstart freeman) in the song "Zip Coon" frequently sung in 19th-century blackface minstrel shows (the character perhaps being so named in reference to the black facial mask of the raccoon and to the practice of hunting and eating raccoons frequently mentioned in minstrel show songs), possibly influenced by 19th-century slang coon, rural white American (often one of modest means and opposed to the slave-owning Southern establishment), fellow, so called in reference to the association of coonskin with American frontiersmen.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

coon

(kuːn)

1. (Animals) informal short for raccoon

2. (Peoples) offensive slang a Black person or a native Australian

3. (Peoples) offensive South African a person of mixed race

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

coon

(kun)

n.

usage: Definition 2 is a slur and should be avoided. It is used with disparaging intent and is perceived as highly insulting.

—n.

1. raccoon.

2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. (a contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.)

[1735–45, Amer.; short for raccoon]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	coon - an eccentric or undignified rustic; "I'll be a gone coon when the battle starts" rustic - an unsophisticated country person
	2.	coon - (ethnic slur) extremely offensive name for a Black person; "only a Black can call another Black a nigga" jigaboo, nigga, nigger, nigra, spade derogation, disparagement, depreciation - a communication that belittles somebody or something ethnic slur - a slur on someone's race or language Black person, blackamoor, Negro, Negroid, Black - a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa)
	3.	coon - North American raccoon common raccoon, common racoon, Procyon lotor, ringtail racoon, raccoon - an omnivorous nocturnal mammal native to North America and Central America

Translations

Waschbär

coon

[kuːn] N

1. (Zool) = raccoon

2. (= Negro) → negro/a m/f (pej)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

coon

(Zool) → Waschbär m

(very offensive sl) → Nigger m (very offensive)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Better tell that coon to stick right alongside you."

One was a coon. And he knew what was the matter the moment he laid eyes on them.

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"What did I want with the little cuss, now," he said to himself, "that I should have got myself treed like a coon, as I am, this yer way?" and Haley relieved himself by repeating over a not very select litany of imprecations on himself, which, though there was the best possible reason to consider them as true, we shall, as a matter of taste, omit.

So, now, old coon," said he to the man at the bar, "get us hot water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff and we'll have a blow-out."

And didn't I car Mas'r Haley night five miles out of de road, dis evening, or else he'd a come up with Lizy as easy as a dog arter a coon. These yer 's all providences."

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Lord, I ain't had a smoke of decent tobacco or a cup of decent coffee in a coon's age.

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When noble Coon, Antenor's eldest son, saw this, sore indeed were his eyes at the sight of his fallen brother.

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"I'm a gone coon this first time and--and I w-want you to take these here things--to--my-- folks." He ended in a quavering sob of pity for himself.

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Skins of wildcat, 'coon, and deer lay about on the pine-board floor.

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I can't speak to him for a minute on the poop without that thimble-rigging coon coming gliding up.

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Once let me loose on the lush, and, Lord love yer, I'm a gone coon!"

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The staid, sober, thinking and industrious ones of our number would employ themselves in making corn-brooms, mats, horse-collars, and baskets; and another class of us would spend the time in hunting opossums, hares, and coons. But by far the larger part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wres- tling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was by far the most agreeable to the feel- ings of our masters.

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