Niger

Meanings

1. A country in West Africa, situated to the north of Nigeria. Official name: Republic of the Niger.
2. A major river in West Africa that flows into the Gulf of Guinea in Nigeria.
3. A state of Nigeria in the North Central geopolitical zone. Capital and largest city: Minna.

1. An Ethiopian herb, Guizotia abyssinica, grown for its seed and edible oil.

Etymology

Commonly linked by folk etymology to Latin niger (“black”), which likely influenced the modern spelling. Some sources give the term to Tuareg roots, deriving it from a claimed gher n-gheren or egereou n-igereouen (“river of rivers”). Compare Tarifit iɣzar-n-iɣezran. Older sources derive Niger, via a series of mistranslations and geographic misplacements by Greek, Roman and Arab geographers, from Ptolemy's descriptions of the wadi Gir (in modern Algeria) and the "Lower Gir" (or "Ni-Gir") to the south.