English
nigger
Nigger comes from Middle French nègre ‘a black person’, and goes back to Latin niger.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEniger1‘black’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentnegro1‘black’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600nègre1‘a black person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1844nigger1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English nigger
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1844, J. W. Dunbar Moodie, The Ould Dhragoon; or, a visit to the beaver meadow: “[…] he resorted to the practice of “niggering,” as…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEnigerWiktionary, English nigger‘black’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentnegroWiktionary, English nigger‘black’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600nègreWiktionary, English nigger‘a black person’
- Englishearliest quotation 1844niggerWiktionary, English nigger. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1844, J. W. Dunbar Moodie, The Ould Dhragoon; or, a visit to the beaver meadow: “[…] he resorted to the practice of “niggering,” as…”
The story
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/. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts ‘night’
through Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- ‘bare, naked’
night, naked, nude, negro, gymnastics, nocturnal, gymnasium, actin, gymnast, naga, nox, nocturne, nudism, 50 more
through Latin niger ‘black’
Today it means
noun A black person; a person of black African descent.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “nigger”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin niger / nigger