English Explanatory Dictionary

nigger

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A black person; a person of black African descent.
  2. A person of black African descent who behaves badly or unconventionally (whether the speaker approves or disapproves).
  3. 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. A person of any kind (particularly as a term of abuse).
  6. A member of a group that is oppressed or marginalized in the manner of black people.
  7. Any of various dark animals:
  8. Any member of species Girella tricuspidata (luderick).
  9. A dark brown nymphalid butterfly, Orsotriaena medus, of south Asia, southeast Asia, and Australia.
  10. A kind of sea cucumber, Holothuria forskali, the cotton-spinner.
  11. The larva of the turnip sawfly, an agricultural pest.
  12. 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.
verb
  1. 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. To exhaust (soil) by cropping it year by year without manure.
  3. To perform in blackface.
  4. To behave as a stereotypical black person.
  5. To treat as inferior.
name
  1. A given name for a black pet.
name
  1. Niger (nation).

Pronunciation

nĭgʹər /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/ /ˈnɪɡɚ/ En-us-ncalif-nigger.ogg /ˈnɪɡə/ /ˈnɪɡəɹ/

Word forms

nigger niggers n****r n-word nigga niggah nigguh niggering niggered

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French nègre (“a black person”), from Spanish negro. Ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. 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/. Compare Danish neger, Swedish neger, German Neger, Dutch neger. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601).

Synonyms

blackie bootlip brillo pad coon darkie groid jigaboo jogger jungle bunny kaffir moon cricket nigga nig-nog porch monkey Sambo shitskin smoked Irishman spade spearchucker spook tar baby wog homie

Related words

negro nigra whigga whigger wigga wigger

Derived words

antinigger chigger criminigger curry nigger Dead Nigger Creek deniggerization deniggerize doublenigger farm nigger field nigger glownigger house nigger magic nigger McNiggers n****r n-bomb nig nigcel nigfant nigga niggacide niggah Nigger niggerati niggeration niggerbabble nigger baby niggerball niggerbitch niggerboy nigger-brown nigger chaser nigger choker niggercide niggerdick niggerdom nigger duck niggerese niggeresque niggeress niggerette niggerfaggot Nigger Felon League niggerfied nigger-fish niggerfree niggerfuck niggerfucker nigger-fucker niggerfuxate niggerfuxated niggerfuxation nigger gallery niggergirl niggergram niggerhead nigger head nigger-head nigger heaven niggerhood

Translations

Albanian: zezak Arabic: زِنْجِيّ Arabic: زَنْجِيّ Arabic: أَسْوَد Arabic: عَبْد Armenian: նեգր Azerbaijani: zənci Baluchi: ٹیہہ Baluchi: ٹینگ Bulgarian: манга́л Bulgarian: не́гър Chinese Cantonese: 黑鬼 Chinese: 烏鬼 /乌鬼 Chinese: 烏張飛 /乌张飞 Chinese Mandarin: 黑鬼 Chinese Mandarin: 尼哥 Czech: negr Danish: nigger Danish: abekat Dutch: nikker Dutch: neger Dutch: roetmop Esperanto: nigrulaĉo Esperanto: nigrulaĉino Estonian: neeger Estonian: pigi Finnish: neekeri Finnish: nekru Finnish: lakupekka Finnish: lakupetteri Finnish: laku French: nègre French: négresse French: négro French: bougnoule Georgian: ზანგი German: Neger German: Negerin German: Nigger German: Niggerin German: Bimbo German: Kaffer German: Kafferin German: Mohr German: Mohrin Greek: αράπης Greek: αραπίνα Hawaiian: nika Hebrew: כושון Hebrew: כּוּשִׁי Hindi: कालू Hungarian: néger Hungarian: feka Icelandic: negri Ido: nigracho Italian: negro Italian: negra Japanese: 黒んぼ Japanese: 黒奴 Japanese: ニガー Korean: 검둥이 Korean: 깜둥이 Macedonian: црнец Norwegian Bokmål: svarting Norwegian Bokmål: sotrør Norwegian Nynorsk: svarting Persian: سیاه سوخته Persian: غلام سیاه Persian: کاکا سیاه Polish: czarnuch Polish: bambus Polish: asfalt Portuguese: preto Portuguese: macaco Portuguese: crioulo Romanian: negrotei Romanian: cioară Russian: негрито́с Russian: негрито́ска Russian: чернома́зый Russian: чернома́зая Russian: ни́ггер Russian: чёрный Russian: черножо́пый Slovak: neger Spanish: negro Spanish: negra Spanish: negrata Spanish: mayate Spanish: negrillo Spanish: negrilla Spanish: negrito Spanish: negrita Spanish: negrote Spanish: negraso Spanish: negro de mierda Spanish: mono Swedish: neger Swedish: nigger Swedish: svarting Turkish: zenci Turkish: gündüz feneri
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