whitecapper

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English

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Etymology

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From white +‎ cap +‎ -er, after the white hoods worn by some.

Noun

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whitecapper (plural whitecappers)

  1. (US, historical) Synonym of whitecap (type of vigilante)
    • 1905 April 12, “Mexican Laborers Warned to Leave: Whitecappers Posted Warnings on Doors of Cabins Occupied by the Mexicans Near Horatio”, in Arkansas Gazette[1], Little Rock, Arkansas, via Newspapers.com, page 1:
      Deputy United States Marshal H. B. Holman returned here on the Kansas City Southern Railroad, to which place he was called by a message from the manager of a large fruit-growing company, asking protection from whitecappers.
    • 1993, William Fitzhugh Brundage, Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880–1930[2], Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 27:
      To the gratification of many local whites, an all-white jury acquitted Brown of the charge of murder and ruled that the shooting of the whitecapper had been a justifiable homicide.