i need help with history question?

Question

when black people were slaves the white man used to call them the N word what does the N word really mean and why did the white man start using it

Answer 1

.The history of the word ****** is often traced to the Latin word niger, meaning black. This word became the noun ***** (black person) in English, and simply the color black in Spanish and Portuguese. In Early Modern French niger became negre and, later, negress (black woman) was unmistakably a part of lexical history. One can compare to negre the derogatory ****** and earlier English substitutes such as negar, neegar, neger, and niggor that developed into its lexico-semantic true version in English. It is probable that ****** is a phonetic spelling of the white Southern mispronunciation of *****.

No matter what its origins, by the early 1800s it was firmly established as a degenerative nickname. In the 21st century, it remains a principal symbol of white racism regardless of who is using it. Social scientists refer to words like ******, kike, ****, and ******* come from three categories: disparaging nicknames (chink, dago, ******, etc); explicit group devaluations ("Jew him down" or "niggering the land"); and irrelevant ethnic names used as a mild disparagement ("jewbird" for cuckoos having prominent beaks or "Irish confetti" for bricks thrown in a fight). Racial slurs (over time) have victimized all racial and ethnic groups; but, no American group goes through as many racial nicknames as Blacks: coon, tom, savage, picanniny, mammy, buck, sambo, *******, buckwheat are some.

Answer 2

it is a dialectical or accented corruption of the word "*****" from the Spanish or Portuguese word meaning "black," originally from Latin nigrum (nom. niger)
People started using ***** as a purely descriptive word, but when it was corrupted in the century before the civil war, it became associated with an attitude of contempt.

Answer 3

the N word means stupid and they used it because a white man said the N word instead of Niger the country in africa

Answer 4

It is a slang word for African Americans, they started calling African Americans it because everyone knew who it refered to, so it was easier to say it. When it was first said, it was not a bad thing to call an African "the N word".

Answer 5

Your question is extremely important. The answer is highly emotionally inflammatory. If I were to answer your question, I would be cast out of Yahoo Answers. You must ask this question of black persons.