Definition of the "N" Word?

Question

Trying this in another forum:

In all seriousness, this issue came up tonight. My sister was complaining that she couldn't understand why African-Americans get so distraught over being called (the N-word). She really couldn't understand why - she had apparently looked it up & found that it meant "tree stump." No joke. Obviously she was looking at the wrong word. But she's been all this time thinking that's what it meant.

Well, just to prove my point that her definition was wrong, and that it meant "ignorant" or "stupid," I decided to search the various online dictionaries.

Suprise! None of them supported my definition! I know that Webster's defined it that way when I was in high school - which is why I always hated it as a racial connotation.

My problem is this: when did the definition change from "ignorant/stupid/unintelligent... to "a black person/a member of any dark-skinned race/a member of a socially disadvantaged class"??

What in the world did I miss? And WHEN??

OK. At least I'm getting answers here.

Just to clarify, though:
1) I'm not racist, & I don't use the word. My children are bi-racial, so it is especially offensive to me.

2) Webster's dictionary (whichever edition was around in the early 90's) is the one which defined the word as "stupid/unintelligent/etc.", not me.

My question was when - what edition - did it change? And why did it change to mean what it does now? There's a huge difference between the two - one is a personal lack of, the other is strictly a racial slur.

RedWine: Good grief, chill. Read the question correctly, then try your answer again.

Further, I'm more offended by your comments than the word itself. BTW, I'm from NC. I came & helped after the storm. You're welcome.

Answer 1

I understand what you mean.I too, grew up knowing that, this word, meant ignorant more so than stupid. I must have missed something because I didn't know that the definition had changed, I can't believe that they changed it to a racial thing.....what is happening to this world?
Tell to your sister that even though she may not believe you, that ignorance is the true defintion, tree stump....perhaps, stupid as a tree stump....and THAT can be black or white.!

Answer 2

I am in my fifties and I have never heard of it to mean "ignorant or stupid", much less a "tree stump"! Ya gotta be kidding!!! When the heck did that happen? The N word was a derogatory word that really requires no definition - it is a biting insult. It originated with the country of Niger (some say Nigeria). You can see how it might have developed from that source, especially with an ignorant "straw boss" (the slave-holder's foremen) who could barely read and who would change the soft g and hard i sound of Niger into the soft i and hard g that we know today. So I guess that makes that "straw-boss" the ignorant N - guy!

The actual derogatory meaning of the N word is that a person who is an N has to do somebody else's menial and hated chores, so in effect they are made into a slave - that means anyone who does such work regardless of color. It is offensive because to be such a person strips them of their dignity, so to call someone the N-word means that they have been stripped of dignity and rights and are in effect second-class people. That's why it is offensive and why it has no place in anyone's vocabulary, except it be someone of African-American heritage who chooses to use it (which is none of my business to tell any Black person what to say).

Answer 3

How should ****** be defined? Is it a part of the American cultural inheritance that warrants preservation? Why does ****** generate such powerful reactions? Is it a MORE hurtful racial epithet than insults such as kike, wop, *******, mick, chink, and ****? Am I wrongfully offending the sensibilities of readers right now by spelling out ****** instead of using a euphemism such as N-word? Should blacks be able to use ****** in ways forbidden to others? YES! Should the law view ****** as a provocation that reduces the culpability of a person who responds to it violently? Under what circumstances, if any, should a person be ousted from his or her job for saying "******"?

Let's turn first to etymology. ****** is derived from the Latin word for the color black, niger. According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it did not originate as a slur but took on a derogatory connotation over time. ****** and other words related to it have been spelled in a variety of ways, including ******, nigguh, niggur, and ******. When John Rolfe recorded in his journal the first shipment of Africans to Virginia in 1619, he listed them as "negars." A 1689 inventory of an estate in Brooklyn, New York, made mention of an enslaved "niggor" boy. The seminal lexicographer Noah Webster referred to Negroes as "negers." (Currently some people insist upon distinguishing ******—which they see as exclusively an insult—from *****, which they view as a term capable of signaling friendly salutation.) In the 1700s niger appeared in what the dictionary describes as "dignified argumentation" such as Samuel Sewall's denunciation of slavery, The Selling of Joseph. No one knows precisely when or how niger turned derisively into ****** and attained a pejorative meaning. We do know, however, that by the end of the first third of the nineteenth century, ****** had already become a familiar and influential insult.

Answer 4

In addition to the obvious definition (which is derogatory), it also has come to mean any person who is exploited and works hard for almost no compensation or appreciation (and generally accepts it because he doesn't know better or can't do anything about it). This definition is also derogatory, clearly--the word is just what I'd put permanent "don't use" category. There's a lot of argument over who should be "allowed" to say it (if anyone), but I'm one of those people who would prefer not to hear it at all.

Answer 5

Why are you spending your time focusing on something that is so nasty, racist and negative? True, we must study the past or we are doomed to repeat it, but that word is best left in the past, where ignorance and racism and slavery existed. There is still ignorance and racism, but no longer slavery in North America. That is why that word is so hated, because it conjures images of slavery and subjugation, which should be left alone, in the past. We are all supposed to be equal, but that word takes equality and destroys it. Study it for the purpose of knowledge and move on. Don't repeat its negativity with obsession. That is not a good thing. It's not positive, and some people need only a spark of negativity to start a riot. Let it go. By the way, I'm not black, so I'm not biased due to my race.

Answer 6

When europeans were trading in black slaves, they called all blacks officially "*****." Which, of course, is spanish for "black."

The "N" word came about because of slang and slack usage and pronunciation of "*****" -- and was used most by slave owners and traders, and after the end of slavery in the US by those who either were angry about the end of slavery, or who felt blacks were not full human beings. Hence its very negative connotations.

Even when black people use it to describe another black person, it's a derogatory term -- meaning a black person that's ignorant or stupid.
We ended slavery over 140 years ago, think we can let this word go now?

Answer 7

Do we have to really go here? Is the word really THAT controversial?Anyone with a brain knows its derogitory. Who cares what Websters says it means. Have you ever heard of slang? Its a really disgusting word. Ok. We all either choose to use it or not use it. Why all the discussion? There are other equally disgusting words out there but we all have to jump on the bandwagon and talk about it like its a new thing. Lets get over it please.

Answer 8

This most offensive of words in American speech dates back to the late 16th century, although the modern spelling doesn't appear until two centuries later. The Oxford English Dictionary II's earliest cite of the modern spelling is from 1786 in Burns's Ordination. (The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, however, claims that this is an editorial error and Burns's original manuscript uses the older niger.) The obsolete spelling niger dates to 1574. It comes from the Latin meaning black. It shares this common root with *****.

The offensiveness of the term has increased over time, especially in the 20th century. Two 16th century quotes that are commonly cited in dictionaries are from scholarly tracts. A 1700 quote by judge Samuel Sewall uses the term in a denunciation of slavery. Gradually, however, polite discourse increasingly used the term ***** (which dates to at least 1555) and n*gger became relegated to the vulgar tongue, increasing in offensiveness over the centuries.

So for example, when Mark Twain uses the word in Huckleberry Finn, by the standards of his day he is not being especially offensive (although even then it was a term that would not be used in polite society), but is using the term as a marker of class and socio-economic status of the characters who utter it.

In the 20th century of course, it has become extremely offensive. It, along with c*nt are just about the only taboo words in American discourse today (it's interesting that the most offensive terms have strong racial or gender discrimination components). About the only acceptable use is in Black English when African-Americans use it to refer to themselves. (There is a similar reclamation of the word queer among homosexuals to rob the term of its offensiveness of the term by using it to refer to themselves.)

It is etymologically unrelated to the word niggard.

Social scientists refer to words like n*gger as ethnophaulisms. Such terms are the language of prejudice – verbal pictures of negative stereotypes. Howard J. Ehrlich, a social scientist, argued that ethnophaulisms are of three types: disparaging nicknames; explicit group devaluations; and irrelevant ethnic names used as a mild disparagement.

All racial and ethnic groups have been victimized by racial slurs; however, no American group has suffered as many racial epithets as have blacks.

Many of these slurs became fully developed pseudo-scientific, literary, cinematic, and everyday caricatures of African Americans. These caricatures, whether spoken, written, or reproduced in material objects, reflect the extent, the vast network, of anti-black prejudice.

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Answer 9

The word "*****" was changed from the word ****** by Richard Pryor I believe and comedians of the like used the word in a brighter sense to cheer people up during the Black Power era of the 70's. This is atleast what my counselor told me so I am here to pass it on.

Peace Brother

But I don't like it when there are Rap artists promoting the word ****** and upsetting many older African American people like that of Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson. I think neither ***** or ****** should ever be used and has lost its meaning since the MTV generation says its ok to use the word.

Answer 10

Apparently you are from the north; Everyone up there hates the word. In the south it is another story. A ****** is not just any black person. A ****** is an ignorant, lazy, black person, who does not care to better themselves, and we have plenty of them here to know the difference.

BLACKS ARE NOT A "SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED CLASS".... Jesus Christ, I cant believe that you think that. With affirmative Action, United ***** College Fund, Miss Black America, NAACP, etc, etc, etc., Hell, blacks are have an advantage, but ******* do not want to take it . Instead they would rather blame someone else for their problems.

Come down to Louisiana for a week or two, you will learn the difference.