Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-06-10
"NIGGER" OR "NEGRO9"

"NIGGER" Or "NEGRO?"
An interesting question is Iaised by
this correspondent:
To the Editor of The State: I note
that in the paper of yesterday you
make the assertion that the use of the
word "Nigger" implies only ignorance
or slovenliness on the part of the user.
May I be permitted to call your atten-
tion to the fact that it is the original
English form of the word, and hence
a survival in common speech of good
homely mother tongue2
In John Smiths History of Virginia,
the word is 80 given. He speaks of
"certain negar slaves" This spelling
is also found in certain autograph
writings of William Penn preserved in
Pennsylvania. This would 60 to show
that originally the word was called
"Nigger;" but that at later time the
Spanish form of the word gained a
foothold, and has come to be regarded
as the correct English form, which his
torically it is not. My authority for
this statement is a well-known anti
quarian of Norfolk, Va, who assured
me that the form indicated above was
the ordinary spelling in all early man.
uscripts, and this testimony was cor
roborated by a Pennsylvania who
had noticed the same popularity in the
Pennsylvania documents.
1t seems then that 80 far from being
corruption of the form "Negro, it is
really better English than that, and q
survival from an earlier period of the
language. While now the usage is
fixed, there really seems little reason
why we should prefer form that has
come to US through the Spanish, d
tongue that has little or no influence
upon the growth of our language,
rather than one which is closer to the
original Latin, and is that used by our
ancestors. R. w. ANDERSON.
S.-While thus differing from you
in regard to the history of word, may
l be permitted to add that I have been
reading your articles on the Negro
question with much interest, and in the
main with cordial agreement.
Edge6eld, S. c., June l, 1899.
When we wrote that the word "nig-
ger" was a corruption of "Negro''
and implied ignorance or slovenliness
on the part of the user we did so with
out having consulted any authority. 1t
was in our mind that the Spaniards
and Portuguese, who had an earlier
acquaintance than the English with
Africa, had introduced the word, "Ne'
gro," like many other acquired in
maritime adventure, to the nations OF
the north. AS NEGRO" is pure Span,
ish and Portuguese for "black" and
as all English words indicating admix'
lures of Negro blood are Of like
origin-e. e., "mulatto," from Spanish
"mulato," derived from "mulo," d
mule, "quadroon" and "octoroon"-
it was natural to assume that "nigger'
was a corruption of the word original
ly imported into England. 1t might,
we thought, have been corruption OF
the Latin "niger," the root of the
Spanish and Portuguese word me.
gro" but that would imply Roman
introduction of the word to England,
which our reading did not show, the
early term in that country having
been "black" or "blackamoor."
We have now consulted the authori-
ties and find our view in the main con-
frmed. 1t is true, as Mr.. Anderson
SAYS, that "Nigger" was derived from
the English "negar"-or, more prop
erly, "neger"-but this word in turn
was derived through the French from
the Spanish.
Under the head of "Negro" the Cen.
tury dictionary says that the deriva-
tion is from the Spanish, Portuguese
and Italian word "Negro" and adds
that "the words moor 'blackamoor,
in the same sense are much older in
English" 1t quotes R. Eden First
Three Books on America) as follows:
"Toward the south of this kynge-
dome of Guinea, with Senega, 1aiofo,
Cambria and manye other regions of
the black Moores cauled Ethiopians or
Negros, all whiche are watered with
the RIVER Negro, cauled in owlde TYNE
Niger" This old writer uses the Span
ish plural of the word, which omits
the e.
AS to "Nigger" the Century says
that it was formerly "Niger, " "Neger," +"
"Negar," "Neager but that it was
derived from the Spanish, Portuguese
and Italian. "Nigger," it says, lis not,
as generally supposed, a corruption of
Negro, but is regularly developed from
the earlier form 'neger,' which is de-
rived through the French from the
Spanish, Portuguese "Negro," from