got this from WordOrigins:

Cotton-Picking

Believe it or not the adjective cotton-picking comes from Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes cartoons. He may not have been the first to use it, but he gets credit for first recorded use.

But the noun cotton-picker is older. It dates to around 1919 and refers to a contemptable person. Those who worked in the fields, usually blacks, were beneath notice. The racial overtones have mellowed over the years, but it is still a derogatory term.


formerly known as etaoin...