nigger

Meaning

Noun

1. (ethnic, offensive, slur, vulgar) A black person; a person of black African descent.
2. (ethnic, offensive, slang, slur, vulgar) A black person; a person of black African descent.
3. (ethnic, offensive, slur, vulgar) A member of any typically dark-skinned people (now especially in combinations like prairie nigger or sand nigger).
4. A friend, particularly a fellow black person (often as an informal term of address).
5. (figuratively) A person of any kind (particularly as a term of abuse).
6. (especially, offensive) A member of a group that is oppressed or marginalized in the manner of black people.
7. (offensive) Any of various dark animals:
8. (dated, offensive) Any of various dark animals:
9. (Cornwall, UK, archaic, offensive) Any of various dark animals:
10. (archaic, offensive) Any of various dark animals:
11. (archaic) 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.
12. (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.
13. (US, archaic) 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.
14. (dated) A black screen used in conjunction with the camera to block light or produce special lighting effects.

Verb

1. (dated, transitive) 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.
2. (dated, transitive) To exhaust (soil) by cropping it year by year without manure.
3. (intransitive, offensive) To perform in blackface.
4. (intransitive, offensive) To behave as a stereotypical black person.
5. (offensive, transitive, uncommon) To treat as inferior.

Synonyms

negro

nigga

jigaboo

nigra

spade

coon

neger

Negro

black

nizzle

brother

👨‍👦

darkey

darkie

darky

African-American

Black

Black person

Cushite

Translations

nègre

Neger

zenci

negro

neger

Nigger

nikker

αράπης

negro

νέγρος

mayate

négro

preto

roetmop

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Cognate with Danish: nigger

Cognate with Swedish: nigger

Cognate with German: Nigger

Cognate with Dutch: nikker

In summary

From Latin niger (“black”). Compare Danish neger, Swedish neger, German Neger, Dutch neger. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601). The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/.