Slang phrase nigger while in the woodpile "a concealed motive or unfamiliar issue impacting a condition within an adverse way" [OED 1989] is attested by 1800; Thornton's "American Glossary" (1912) defines it as "A method of accounting to the disappearance of gas," therefore "an unsolved mystery.The slang time period "Niga" can be a very offensive t