History of the word niger

Nigger is a racial slur in American English used against Black Americans.

Sorry, the content of this store can't be seen by a younger audience. Come back when you're older. February 27, Whatever its origins , by the early s it was firmly established as a denigrative epithet. Almost two centuries later, it remains a chief symbol of racism, anywhere in the world, but most specifically in the United States. There is no question that the words of etymologic lineage, to the actual word nigger , were bastardized over time to degrade black people.

History of the word niger

That was the view of prosecutor Christopher Darden when the issue of saying the N-word came up in the murder trial of US football star OJ Simpson. And it's a view that many people still share today. The BBC received more than 18, complaints for using the word in full in a report about a racially aggravated attack in July. It initially defended the decision but the then-director general Tony Hall later issued an apology , saying it was a "mistake". This led to the BBC issuing staff with new guidance on the use of racist language in its output - which was published on Wednesday. It now says there must be "exceptional editorial reasons to use the strongest racist terms" - and this must be personally approved by the corporation's divisional directors. When I hear the word I shudder. I think of my dad hearing the words, "Get the [N-word]! It was in the summer of when a ship arrived in a port in Virginia carrying around 20 Africans who were chained up to be sold as slaves. It was the first documented arrival of slaves in the US, and the Africans were referred to using the Spanish and Portuguese words for black - which is where the word comes from. So I would hope most people would understand why that is deeply offensive and problematic because it still is used in that context now. You only have to watch films like 12 Years a Slave to see how the word was used to make black people feel inferior and unworthy.

Journal of the Early Republic. The Christian Science Monitor. Main article: Use of nigger in proper names.

Now where in tarnation did this monstrosity of a word come from? Well of course we look to Latin American Language as the culprit. Which coincidently enough is the word for the color black in Spanish and Portuguese. The word carries with it a privilege also, a privilege that only certain people are allowed to use this word. And it is what African descendants call each other as a way of connecting in a brotherhood type of fashion. Now imagine the same scenario but with two Caucasian males saying the exact same. That is because the word is still highly debated to the present.

Nigger is an infamous word in current English, so much so that when people are called upon to discuss it, they more often than not refer to it euphemistically as "the N-word. Sense 3 is also now rarely used and is often considered offensive. The word's self-referential uses by and among Black people are not always intended or taken as offensive although many object to those uses as well , but its use by a person who is not Black to refer to a Black person can only be regarded as a deliberate expression of contemptuous racism. Did the definition of nigger change? There is a widespread belief that the original meaning of nigger , as defined in dictionaries, was "an ignorant person," and a related belief that current dictionary definitions describing its use as a hateful, racist epithet are a recent change. We do not know the source of those beliefs, but they are not accurate. The word was first included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary in , at which time it was defined as a synonym of Negro , with a note indicating that it was used "in derision or depreciation.

History of the word niger

Nigger is a racial slur in American English used against Black Americans. Starting in the s, [1] references to nigger have been increasingly replaced by the euphemism " the N-word " , notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used. Rather than demonstrating a hostile meaning of the word itself, early attested uses during the Atlantic slave trade 16th—19th century often conveyed a patronizing tone that reflects the underlying attitudes held towards black people by their white authors. Building up on these mildly disparaging social meanings, the word took on a derogatory connotation from the midth century onward, to the extent that it had "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors kept on using the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of nigger became increasingly seen as controversial regardless of its context or intent. Because the word nigger has historically "wreaked symbolic violence, often accompanied by physical violence", it began to disappear from general popular culture from the second part of the 20th century onward, with the exception of cases derived from intra-group usage such as hip hop culture.

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Kendrick Lamar stopped a white fan after she repeatedly used the word while singing his song. BBC says sorry over racial slur in news report. Norman Mailer wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in in his essay The White Negro. During our chat she used the full word and every time I heard it I could just feel my body tensing up. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools. Caller Shaun said the word has been "demonised", adding: "If you walked up and slapped me in the face I'd be offended, if you call me any name under the sun I'd just rise above it and walk on. Image source, Shutterstock. Polos Graphic Tees Joggers Hoodies. Though Yaouri form found above is the name of tribe and could be traced to this Persian root am not prepared to derive the name Yoruba1 from it This Persian root g- is clearly applicable to strangers foreigners and such like e. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you.

From the earliest usage it was "the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks" [cited in Gowers, , probably Harold R. But as black African inferiority was at one time a near universal assumption in English-speaking lands, the word in some cases could be used without deliberate insult. More sympathetic writers late 18c.

The word can be invoked politically for effect. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in Mark Twain 's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Retrieved March 12, The Assassination of the Black Male Image. Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target s. Explaining why he did this, he told Vanity Fair : "I've been on this earth for 30 years and there's been so many things a Caucasian person said I couldn't do. In , some BBC viewers complained when an episode from Fawlty Towers was edited to remove a line that contained the word - saying it was the "airbrushing of history". Racial slur against black people. In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War —75 , professional boxer Muhammad Ali said, "No Vietcong ever called me nigger. Kebab Mongol Kanake. Tai Ke. Retrieved February 1, Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Wikimedia Commons.