Nigger in Scrabble and Meaning

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You can make 44 words from nigger according to the Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

Definitions and meaning of nigger

nigger

Alternative forms

• n****r (censored)
• n-word (euphemistic)
• nigga, niggah, nigguh (eye dialect)

Etymology

Probably immediately from French nègre or Spanish and Portuguese negro (“a black African”); ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. Compare Danish nigger, Swedish nigger, German Nigger, Dutch nikker. 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/.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: nĭgʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/
• (General American) enPR: nĭgʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈnɪɡɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)

Noun

nigger (plural niggers, feminine niggeress)

1. (offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar, see usage notes) A black person; a person of black African descent.

   Hypernyms: see Thesaurus:person of color

   1. (offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar, slang) A person of black African descent who behaves badly or unconventionally (whether the speaker approves or disapproves).
2. (offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar, see usage notes) A member of any typically dark-skinned people (now especially in combinations like prairie nigger or sand nigger).
3. (African-American Vernacular) A friend, particularly a fellow black person (often as an informal term of address).
4. (figurative, especially African-American Vernacular, otherwise offensive) A person of any kind (particularly as a term of abuse).
5. (especially in comparisons, now offensive) A member of a group that is oppressed or marginalized in the manner of black people.
   • 1979 April 14, Jil Clark (quoting Mel King), "King Axes Women's Commission", in Gay Community News, page 1:

     The governor made it into office by campaigning against the niggers. And people should understand who the niggers are. It's the elderly one week. Then it's those on public assistance. Now he sees women as niggers, and he's trying to do them in.

   • c. 1972 Ron Dellums, speech quoted in e.g. 2012, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (Simon and Schuster, →ISBN), page 58:

   • 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" (song)
6. (now offensive) Any of various dark animals:
   1. (now offensive) Any member of species Girella tricuspidata (luderick).
   2. (now offensive, dated) A dark brown nymphalid butterfly, Orsotriaena medus, of south Asia, southeast Asia, and Australia.
   3. (UK, Cornwall, fishing, archaic) A kind of sea cucumber, Holothuria forskali, the cotton-spinner.
   4. (archaic) The larva of the turnip sawfly, an agricultural pest.
7. (archaic, electrical) 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.
8. (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.
9. (archaic, US) 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.
10. (film, dated) A black screen used in conjunction with the camera to block light or produce special lighting effects.

Usage notes

• The word "nigger" is considered to be extremely offensive and one of the most taboo words in the English language. In a 2007 study by Kristy Beers Fägersten, undergraduates at the University of Florida were asked to rate 12 pejorative English words on a scale of 1 ('Not Offensive') to 10 ('Very Offensive'). Participants rated nigger the most offensive, nearly 2 points higher than the second-most offensive word, cunt. New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority conducted a study in 2010 and again in 2013 which found that nigger was the second-most offensive word in New Zealand (after cunt), offending 66% and 65% of those surveyed respectively, and a similar study by several British broadcasting organizations found that "nigger" offended 68% of Britons and was the fifth most offensive word in the UK (after cunt, motherfucker, fuck, and wanker).
• There have been efforts by those of African descent to reclaim the word (especially in the form nigga), but these efforts are controversial and some people do not believe it is able to be reclaimed due to its fraught history and continued derogatory usage. Regardless, usage by non-blacks is still almost invariably considered highly racist and offensive.
• "Nigger" has derogatory connotations, suggesting not only white racism and negatively-perceived darkness of skin but also unfavorable attributes such as a lack of intelligence, chronic unemployment, use of government welfare, a propensity toward drug use and criminal behavior, etc. It is furthermore associated with the enslavement and subordinate social status of Africans and African Americans.
• Historically, "nigger" was not necessarily always used in a specifically derogatory sense, though its use instead of black or Negro (historically a neutral term) often reflected subconscious negative attitudes towards African-Americans involving "keeping the black man in his place".
• To blunt its force, the word is commonly referred to as the "n-word" and may be censored in direct quotations.
• Not to be confused with the etymologically unrelated but similar-sounding niggard (“miser”).

Synonyms

• (derogatory term for black person): blackie, bootlip, coon, darkie, groid, jigaboo, jogger, jungle bunny, kaffir, moon cricket, nig-nog, nigga, porch monkey, Sambo, shitskin, smoked Irishman, spade, spearchucker, spook, tar baby, wog
• (friend): homie, nigga

Derived terms

Related terms

• negro, Negro
• nigra, Nigra
• whigga, whigger, wigga, wigger

Translations

Verb

nigger (third-person singular simple present niggers, present participle niggering, simple past and past participle niggered)

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

References

Anagrams

• Gering, Ginger, erging, ginger

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English nigger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈneɡ̊ʌ]

Noun

nigger c (singular definite niggeren, plural indefinite niggere)

1. (vulgar, derogatory, offensive, rare) nigger; a dark-skinned person, especially a person of, or primarily of, Negro descent

Synonyms

• (dark-skinned, derogatory): abekat
• (dark-skinned, now offensive): neger
• (dark-skinned, neutral): sort, farvet, afrikaner

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English nigger.

Noun

nigger m (definite singular niggeren, indefinite plural niggere, definite plural niggerne)

1. (vulgar, offensive) nigger

Synonyms

• neger
• svarting

References

• “nigger” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /¹nɪɡːər/

Etymology 1

From English nigger, a distortion of neger, from French nègre or Spanish and Portuguese negro. Doublet of neger (“black person”).

Noun

nigger m (definite singular niggeren, indefinite plural niggerar, definite plural niggerane)

1. (offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar) nigger

Related terms

• neger

See also

• svarting

Etymology 2

From nigra (“to do fine work, to peck; to stretch”), a variant of nigla.

Adjective

nigger (neuter niggert, definite singular and plural nigre, comparative nigrare, indefinite superlative nigrast, definite superlative nigraste)

1. economical, thrifty

   Synonyms: nigren, sparsam

References

• “nigger”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016
• “nigger” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

Attested since 1888 according to Svenska Akademiens ordbok. From English nigger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪɡːer/

Noun

nigger c

1. (vulgar, offensive, dated) nigger, a variant of neger
2. (dated, games) Synonym of ruta (“foursquare”).

Declension

Synonyms

• blatte
• neger
• svarting
• svartskalle

Anagrams

• regnig, riggen