• Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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    3 months ago

    But neither is your skin colour expressed in Latin.

    Niger is Latin… Nigger is not.

    While I’m generally not sensitive to these things, claiming something that’s factually not true as a defense of the word is just not okay. Use the word if you really want to use it. If you use it in any other way other than academically (such as discussing the word in of itself)… don’t surprise pikachu when people shun you for it.

      • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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        3 months ago

        Not according to the etymology. https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigger

        1786, earlier neger (1568, Scottish and northern England dialect), negar, negur, from French nègre, from Spanish negro (see Negro).

        All of these languages are latin-based languages… So there must be a latin root. If you dig further you find

        from Latin nigrum (nominative niger) “black, dark, sable, dusky” (applied to the night sky, a storm, the complexion), figuratively “gloomy, unlucky, bad, wicked,”

        So yes negro exists in the middle but not as the source necessarily… It would have evolved (if I read the etymology correctly) as Nigrum -> Niger -> Negro/neger/negar/negur -> Nigger.

      • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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        3 months ago

        Jeez, you’re really out here word policing when it’s clear we’re simply talking about the word… You know… not actually attributing it.

        You act like just saying “Negro” with no context is any better.

        Just like your namesake, you’ve added nothing to the discussion except a bit of toxicity.