NIGGER

Etymology

Noun

nigger

(offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar, see usage notes) A dark-skinned person, especially a person of, or primarily of, Negro descent; a black person.

(offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar slang) A person of Negro descent who acts in an unapproved manner, usually as an archetypical badass.

(African American Vernacular English) An informal term of address.

(African American Vernacular English) A friend.

(now, offensive) A fish, the luderick (Girella tricuspidata).

(now, offensive, dated) A dark brown butterfly, Orsotriaena medus.

(archaic, electrical) An impurity in the covering of an electrical conductor which serves to make a partial short circuit, and thus becomes sufficiently heated to burn and destroy the insulation.

(UK, Cornwall, fishing, archaic) A kind of sea cucumber, Holothuria forskali, the cotton spinner.

(archaic) The larva of the turnip sawfly, an agricultural pest.

(archaic) A strong iron-bound timber with sharp teeth or spikes protruding from its front face, forming part of the machinery of a sawmill, and used in canting logs, etc.

(archaic, US) A steam-capstan on some Mississippi river boats, used to haul the boat over bars and snags by a rope fastened to a tree on the bank.

(film, dated) A black screen used in conjunction with the camera to block light or produce special lighting effects.

Usage notes

• The word "nigger" is considered one of the most offensive words in the English language. In a 2007 study by Kristy Beers Fägersten, undergraduates at the University of Florida were asked to rate 12 pejorative English words on a scale of 1 ('Not Offensive') to 10 ('Very Offensive'). Participants rated nigger the most offensive, nearly 2 points higher than the second-most offensive word, cunt. New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority conducted a study in 2010 and again in 2013 which found that nigger was the second-most offensive word in New Zealand (after cunt), offending 66% and 65% of those surveyed respectively, and a similar study by several British broadcasting organizations found that "nigger" offended 68% of Brits and was the fifth most offensive word in the UK (after cunt, motherfucker, fuck, and wanker).

• There have been efforts by those of African descent to reclaim the word (especially in the form nigga), but these efforts are controversial and some people do not believe it is able to be reclaimed due to its fraught history and continued derogatory usage. Regardless, usage by non-blacks is still almost invariably considered highly offensive.

• "Nigger" has derogatory connotations, suggesting not only negatively-perceived darkness of skin but also unfavorable attributes such as a lack of intelligence, chronic unemployment, use of government welfare, a propensity toward drug use and criminal behavior, etc. It is furthermore associated with the era of white colonization of Africa and enslavement of Africans and African Americans.

• To blunt its force, the word is commonly referred to as the "n-word" and is typically censored in direct quotations.

Synonyms

• (derogatory term for dark-skinned person): blackie, nigga, coon, darkie, gator bait, groid, jigaboo, jungle bunny, kaffir, macaca, nig-nog, porch monkey, sambo, shitskin, spade, spearchucker, spook, tarbaby, wog

• (friend): homie, nigga

Verb

nigger (third-person singular simple present niggers, present participle niggering, simple past and past participle niggered)

(transitive, dated) To clear land by laying light pieces of round timber across the trunks of the trees and setting fire to them at the point of contact, by which means the trees are slowly burned through.

(transitive, dated) To exhaust (soil) by cropping it year by year without manure.

(intransitive, offensive) To behave as a stereotypical black person.

(uncommon, transitive, offensive) To treat as inferior.

Anagrams

• Gering, Ginger, erging, ginger

Source: Wiktionary

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Nig"ger, n.

Definition: A negro; -- in vulgar derision or depreciation.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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