1824, originally in African-American vernacular in the South.
The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as 'poor white trash.' [Fanny Kemble, journal, Jan. 6, 1833]
[T]he term [poor white] is rather loosely applied by Northern writers even to mountaineers and to small farmers who live on a precarious footing. But in the Southern conception, not everyone who is both poor and white is a "poor white." To the Southerner, the "poor white" in the strictest sense is a being beyond the pale of even the most generous democratic recognition; in the negro's term, "po' white trash," or so much social débris. [Robert Penn Warren, "The Briar Patch," 1930, footnote]
1570s, "unevenness;" 1660s, "deviation from the common rule," from Latin anomalia, from Greek anomalia "inequality," abstract noun from anomalos "uneven, irregular," from an- "not" (see an- (1)) + homalos "even," from homos "same" (from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with"). From 1722 as "something abnormal or irregular."
"of great antiquity or age," 1809, from Greek Ōgygos, Ōgygēs, Ōgygios, name of a mythical king of Attica or Boeotia (or both) of whom nothing is known and who even in classical times was thought to have lived very long ago. Also sometimes with reference to a famous flood said to have occurred in his day.
"trickery deceit," an obsolete 16c. word "of unknown etymology, and even of uncertain existence" [OED], inferred from words in several texts dating to c. 1300, "some of which might possibly be explained otherwise." These include notably cole-pixy "mischievous fairy" (1540s), a southwestern England dialect word (later colt-pixie) and cole-prophet "pretended mystical fortune-teller."
1590s, "time of merrymaking," from Latin Saturnalia, the ancient Roman festivals of Saturn (held in December), a time of feasting and mirthful license for all classes, even slaves; neuter plural of the adjective Saturnalis "pertaining to Saturn," from Saturnus (see Saturn). They correspond to the Greek Kronia.
The extended sense of "period of wild or noisy revelry" is attested by 1782. Related: Saturnalian.
