nigger
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: nĭgʹər
ipa: /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/
enpr: nĭgʹər
ipa: /ˈnɪɡɚ/
rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)
Forms: form: niggers
form: niggering
form: niggered
form: niggered
form: n-word
form: nigga
form: niggah
form: nigguh
Etymology: 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/.
Senses: examples: text: […] he resorted to the practice of “niggering,” as it is called: which is simply 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.
ref: 1844, J. W. Dunbar Moodie, “The Ould Dhragoon; or, a visit to the beaver meadow”, in Literary garland, volume 2, Lovell & Gibson, page 360:
text: The operation was this: they placed smaller logs and dry rubbish across the log and applied fire to them; this was called “niggering”.
ref: 1914, Indiana State Teachers Association, Readings in Indiana history, Indiana University, History Section, page 171:
text: All day long his axe rang through the frosty air as he felled saplings for the fence and stripped them from fuel for the “niggering” fires.
ref: 1956, Joseph Kirkland, Zury: the meanest man in Spring County: a novel of western life, University of Illinois Press, page 40:
text: This means subduing and taming the forest itself—the central drama of The Fields—performing the hard labor of hacking the trees and “niggering” and burning the butts in order to get to the rich black soil underneath.
ref: 1980, Elaine Hedges, William Hedges, Land and imagination: the rural dream in America, Hayden Book Co., page 69:
glosses: 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.
glosses: To exhaust (soil) by cropping it year by year without manure.
examples: text: There is a general agreement that niggering took over from mummering to keep up the old custom.
ref: 1976, Cake and Cockhorse, volume 7, page 220:
glosses: To perform in blackface.
examples: text: His father said, “Niggering, I was niggering about. You knew that surely.”
ref: 1989, Reynolds Price, The surface of earth, Ballantine Books, page 120:
text: Forrest’s rediscovery of his father coincides with his discovery that old Robinson’s “niggering around” produced at least one child of mixed race.
ref: 2007, George Hovis, Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction, Univ of South Carolina Press, page 86:
text: I mean he was niggering. Niggering out, grabbing at my leg and microphone cord. I said, ‘Stop that you damn nigger!’ and that takes guts!
ref: 2008, Joe Ambrose, Gimme Danger: The Story Of Iggy Pop, Music Sales Group:
glosses: To behave as a stereotypical black person.
examples: text: The gated community is a powerful tool in the systematic and sustained niggering of local 3rd-world communities - namely, in the book, the Hispanic (mostly wetbacK^([sic])) community[.]
ref: 1997 January 18, Joe Frisch, “Anglo-US relations under a Blair Government”, in uk.org.mensa (Usenet):
text: > He is on TV saying that he was "abused" by the police and treated like a nigger.
ref: 1999 December 3, Jeff Welch, “Who is McGuyver and why was he "niggered?”, in seattle.general, December 3 (Usenet):
text: Why would many Paletinians^([sic]) want to return to a land where they would be "niggered" for the benefit of the Israelis as the present Palestinian population is[?]
ref: 2003 July 16, “Mob Attacks Palestinian Pollsters Who Told The Truth”, in soc.retirement (Usenet):
glosses: To treat as inferior.