The variants *neger* and *negar* derive from various Mediterranean language words for “black”, including the Spanish and Portuguese word *negro* (black) and the now-pejorative French *nègre*. Etymologically, *negro*, *noir*, *nègre*, and *nigger* ultimately derive from *nigrum*, the stem of the [Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) *niger* (black) (pronounced \[ˈniɡer\] which, in every other [grammatical case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_case), [grammatical gender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender), and [grammatical number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_number) besides [nominative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_case) masculine singular, is *nigr-* followed by a [case ending](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_ending), the *r* is [trilled](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_trill)).

In its original English language usage, *nigger* (then spelled *niger*) was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to “the Nigers of [Aethiop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aethiopia), bearing witnes”.[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-2) According to the [Oxford English Dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary), the first derogatory usage of the term *nigger* was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-3)

In the [colonial America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_America) of 1619, [John Rolfe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rolfe) used *negars* in describing the African slaves shipped to the [Virginia colony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_colony).[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-4) Later [American English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English) spellings, *neger* and *neggar*, prevailed in a northern colony, [New York under the Dutch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Netherland), and in [metropolitan Philadelphia’s Moravian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian_Church_in_North_America) and [Pennsylvania Dutch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch) communities; the [African Burial Ground](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Burial_Ground) in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name *Begraafplaats van de Neger* (Cemetery of the Negro); an early occurrence of *neger* in [Rhode Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island) dates from 1625.[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-5) [Lexicographer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicography) [Noah Webster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster), whose [eponymous dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s_Dictionary#Noah_Webster.27s_American_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language) did much to solidify the distinctive spelling of American English, suggested the *neger* spelling in place of *negro* in 1806.[\[6\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-6) [The dialect spoken in the Southern United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English) changes the pronunciation of *negro* to *nigra*.

During the [fur trade of the early 1800s to the late 1840s in the Western United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_fur_trade#Fur_trade_in_the_western_United_States), the word was spelled “niggur”, and is often recorded in literature of the time. [George Fredrick Ruxton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fredrick_Ruxton) used it in his “[mountain man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_man)” lexicon, without pejorative [connotation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connotation). “Niggur” was evidently similar to the modern use of “[dude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dude)” or “guy”. This passage from Ruxton’s *Life in the Far West*illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: “Travler, marm, this niggur’s no travler; I ar’ a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!”[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-7) It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a “niggur”.[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-8) “The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing.”[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-9)

The term “[colored](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored)” or “negro” became a respectful alternative. In 1851 the [Boston Vigilance Committee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Vigilance_Committee), an [Abolitionist organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States), posted warnings to the *Colored People of Boston and vicinity*. Writing in 1904, journalist [Clifton Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Johnson_(author)) documented the “opprobrious” character of the word *nigger*, emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than “colored” or “negro”.[\[10\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-10) By the turn of the century, “colored” had become sufficiently mainstream that it was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Colored_People). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said “the term ‘colored’ is not derogatory, \[the NAACP\] chose the word ‘colored’ because it was the most positive description commonly used \[in 1909, when the association was founded\]. It’s outdated and antiquated but not offensive.”[\[11\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-11) Canadian writer [Lawrence Hill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Hill) changed the title of [his 2007 novel *The Book of Negroes*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Negroes_(novel)). The name refers to [a real historical document](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Negroes), but he felt compelled to find another name for the American market, retitling the US edition *Someone Knows My Name*.[\[12\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-12)

📷First US edition, with the title changed from [*Nigger of the Narcissus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_of_the_Narcissus)

Nineteenth-century literature features usages of “nigger” without racist connotation. [Mark Twain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain), in the autobiographic book [*Life on the Mississippi*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_the_Mississippi) (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating [reported speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_speech), but used the term “negro” when writing in his own [narrative persona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona#In_literature).[\[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-13) [Joseph Conrad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad) published a novella in Britain with the title [*The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nigger_of_the_%27Narcissus%27) (1897), but was advised to release it in the United States as *The Children of the Sea*, [see below](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#In_the_title).

By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the [civil rights movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement) had legitimized the [racial identity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics) word *black* as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President [Thomas Jefferson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson) had used this word of his slaves in his [*Notes on the State of Virginia*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_the_State_of_Virginia)*’*(1785), but “black” had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See [Black Pride](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Pride), and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, [Negritude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negritude).)

In the 1990s, “Black” was displaced in favor of “[African American](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American)”, an example of what linguist [Steven Pinker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker) calls the “[euphemism treadmill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphemism#Context_and_drift)”. Moreover, as a [compound word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_word), *African American* resembles the [vogue word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_word) *Afro-American*, an early-1970s popular usage. Some black Americans continue to use the word *nigger*, often spelled as [*nigga*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigga) and *niggah*, without irony, either to neutralize the word’s impact or as a sign of solidarity.[\[14\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-14)

In the 1990s, *dune coon* would also evolve as an equivalent of the variant [*sand nigger*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_nigger), an epithet directed at persons of Middle Eastern heritage.[\[15\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#cite_note-15)