Search results
The word niggardly (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to nigger, derived from the Old Norse word nig (stingy) and the Middle English word nigon. In the US, this word has been misinterpreted as related to nigger and taken as offensive.
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. "It's really...
Jun 16, 2020 · Many common phrases often found in American English actually have racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive origins. The popular term "peanut gallery," for example, was once used to refer to...
- Henry Blodget
The earliest known use of the word offensive is in the mid 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for offensive is from before 1548.
Apr 30, 2021 · As it happens, the first reference involved “aethiops,” as it had come to refer to Ethiopia, or at least that term as applied sloppily to Africa. We heard of “The Nigers of Aethiop” in 1577,...
Jun 21, 2014 · Perhaps the most inflammatory is the N-word. The proxy barely disguises the racial insult, ‘nigger’, which has topped lists of ugly and hateful words since it was first uttered in the 17th...
Several anthologies from the period use the word "Negro" in their titles, including most famously, Alain Locke's The New Negro: an Interpretation; the UNIA's official newspaper was also called Negro World; there could be many more examples. Many of our students have found the historical usage of the term "Negro" confusing, and at times have ...
