Want to be niggardly in your use of the English language?

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

[L-Pink]

I'm going to be niggardly in cutting you slack for this troll thread.

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

You are a good example of what I am not talking about.

[Alex1776]

I saw an extremely attractive negress on wilshire today!

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

Totally unrelated but good for you.

[baddog]

Pretty immature; did you just learn the word today? Do you think you could use it in a proper sentence?

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

I think I just did old man.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by baddog

Pretty immature; did you just learn the word today? Do you think you could use it in a proper sentence?

I've been called horrible stuff for using that word

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Is "niggardly" a racist word?

Dear Straight Dope:

I was recently involved in a discussion, a rather heated one at that, over the word niggardly. While I am familiar with the dictionary definition of the word, my premise was that it likely derives from the same source as the infamous N-word. I attributed no racist motives to the speaker, but I suspect that the origins of the word were not so benign.

When did it enter the English language and from which other language? While I am no proponent of political correctness, I have tended to look on this word with the same disdain as I have for terms such as Indian giver, Jewing someone down, and welshing on a bet. Am I being overly sensitive?

? [email protected]

You might look in a better fargin' dictionary. Sure, the origin of "niggard" is unclear, but not its timeline, which predates the N-word in the English language by a couple hundred years at least. "Niggard" comes up as early as Chaucer, late 14th century.

The most commonly speculated origin is Scandanavian nig/Old Norse hnoggr, meaning miserly. Don't know how much faith you want to put in Indo-European roots, but one meaning of the root ken- is conjectured to relate a family of words with a connotation implying closing, tightening, or pinching (the family of related words is hypothesized to include such n-words as nap, nibble, nod, nosh, neap, nip).

The racial slur "hahahahahaha," on the other hand, doesn't enter the lexicon until the 1500's, first as "neger" or "neeger," obviously from the same root as the French negre and Spanish negro, words for the color black, which are derived from the Latin niger.

Likely, your conversation on the word occurred about the same time as much of the country's, when poor David Howard made the national news for use of this term. Howard, head of the Office of Public Advocate for D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, who described his own administration of a particular fund as "niggardly" in the presence of two of his staff members.

He has since been quoted as saying he "immediately apologized" for making what might be misinterpreted as a "racist remark," but the damage had been done. Rumors circulated that he had in fact used a racial epithet (one attribution claimed he said, "I'm tired of all these hahahahahahas calling me with their problems"), and he eventually resigned. Eventually the mayor, after determining the facts, asked him to rescind his resignation, and he rejoined the administration, albeit in another position. The D.C. mayor's web page lists him as the mayor's scheduler.

The moral of the story is, this is what happens when people insist on relying on folk etymology and speculation. Howard was pressured to resign by people who, as columnist Tony Snow put it, "actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance." There are hundreds of words in English, or any language, that sound similar--or even identical--to others, but have completely unrelated origins and definition.

Sure, you don't want to offend anyone deliberately, but there's a fine line between not being a jerk and examining every word you speak for nuances that might be misinterpreted by people who don't understand them. If there's one thing the Straight Dope has taught me, political correctness should always take a back seat to actual correctness.

ADG

[nexcom28]

Just words is all.

[Major (Tom)]

I'm very niggardly when it comes to buying frivolous things
Ds

[jigg]

it's a real word

nig·gard [nig-erd]
noun
1. an excessively parsimonious, miserly, or stingy person.

adjective
2. niggardly; miserly; stingy.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English nyggard, equivalent to nig niggard (< Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish nygg; akin to Old English hnēaw stingy) + -ard

[Just Alex]

[oppoten]

Originally Posted by jigg

2. niggardly; miserly; stingy.

kike-ish?

[Major (Tom)]

Originally Posted by oppoten

kike-ish?

Yes they are synonymous
Ds

[alias]

A word is a word, it is important to cherish our cultural heritage.

[Grapesoda]

Originally Posted by jigg

it's a real word

nig·gard [nig-erd]
noun
1. an excessively parsimonious, miserly, or stingy person.

adjective
2. niggardly; miserly; stingy.

Origin:
1325?75; Middle English nyggard, equivalent to nig niggard (< Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish nygg; akin to Old English hnēaw stingy) + -ard

please don't confuse the issue with facts

[Spunky]

Cant we all just get along?

[jigg]

Originally Posted by Grapesoda

please don't confuse the issue with facts

not confusing anything, I didn't know it's a real word that pre-dates the n-word by quite a bit

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

Samuel L jackson's eyes don't match his persona. Niggardly.

[Arnox]

If anyone wants 100 word blog posts optimized for the word 'niggardly', hit me up.

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

You will land work like that.

[Arnox]

Originally Posted by Vapid

You will land work like that.

Gotta get my hussle on somehow.

[Vapid - BANNED FOR LIFE]

You should write your way into a partnership.