Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A difficult or "sticky" situation, especially one where peoples' attempts to make it better only make it worse
  • noun pejorative, ethnic slur A black person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

tar +‎ baby, from African American folklore, popularized by the tale of Br'er Rabbit in the Uncle Remus stories (1881) of Joel Chandler Harris, originally from Cherokee folklore (a tar baby story was published in the Cherokee Advocate, 1845).

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