Actually I would suggest that you should say in the AMERICAN repertoire.
I can’t recall EVER hearing the word nigger in conversation during my childhood on anything other than TV.
Until I saw the thread here, I had never thought to connect nigger and niggardly.
It simply wouldn’t occur to me. But then, niggle and niggling are both in very common use back home, so I would have assumed it belongs to the same family long before I would connect it to a slang term for African American.
You are I think deliberately misreading.
What part of this:
Was unclear?
No-one denies that a person could use the term as a slur - just like, in context, they could use literaly dozens of other words as slurs.
What we are saying here is that the very fact someone could use a word as a slur, does not make the word forever verboten.
In 2010 in the United States, I can’t think of a context where I would make this assumption. People on this board saying they’ll use the word for the express purpose of offending people add to my impression that it’s generally used with an intent to tweak at the very least.
We aren’t all from the US, for a start.
I realize that, which is why I said in 2010 in the United States and not just in 2010.
Context is always important. Even the actual n-word, if offered during a discussion of what Huck should have done following Jim’s capture by the Phelpses, is not offensive.
My only point here is that niggardly is not per se offensive. Obviously I agree if it’s being using by some snickering idiot with sidelong glances to see if his point is being made, it’s offensive and inappropriate.
This is where I disagree. You suggest that the default assumption should be “intended to offend.” I don’t agree. What’s wrong with simply asking if the word was used correctly, in a context that doesn’t otherwise evoke racial awareness? Band-aids at camp? Not a hotbed of racial contention. Obama’s budget policies? Yes, sadly, there’s a racial element possible there, so there I’d grant your inference.
Hence, there is already a whole world of contexts in which the notion of racially-charged meaning would not apply.
Add to that a bunch of other situations and contexts, even in the US - as Bricker has suggested.
Point being, taking offense is not clearly the default for the general use of the word.
For you.
And, to clarify, I do not “take offense” at the word. I am suspicious of those who use it now, and as people on the Dope who say they will use it to deliberately offend and tweak and that sign I linked to shows, I’m right.
What you do with this information is completely up to you.
Fair enough.
Does that mean you are “suspicious” of 70% of the 152 Dopers who responded to the poll in this thread - who responded that they used the word?
To my mind, it is simply inconceivable that the vast majority of Dopers who responded to this poll are actually closet race-baiters - for one, the Dope is hardly a font of racist sentiment. I’d have thought the reverse.
Isn’t it rather more likely that the “suspicion” is simply incorrect?
You are welcome to think so.
And when dopers say that they deliberately use the word to cause offense, you are welcome to excuse that in whatever way you can think of. I won’t find it persuasive.
The sign shows nothing of the sort.
Certainly. But (depending…) I’m less likely to adjust my vocabulary to match theirs than I am to educate them.
Other, and it’s a toss-up between options 1 and 3 - in that I know the word ; I know what it means ; but I wouldn’t use it myself. Not because it offends anybody, it’s just an old fogey word :). I’d use greedy, miserly, stingy, mean with money, cheap/cheapskate or possibly tighter than a duck’s arse. The word niggardly would be very unlikely to pop up in my head to express that idea.
[QUOTE=SkaldTheRhymer]
But then I’m a large black man.
[/QUOTE]
They did say you was hung ! 
So’s “nigger”, if you want to go that way.
Maybe a new poll would be interesting? See if attitudes have changed the last 4-5 years.
I have never used the word, though I’ve long known hat it meant from old English novels. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the word in conversation.
In and of itself, it’s a harmless word, BUT I can easily imagine a genuine racist using it coyly and slyly… as if he’s trying to insult someone while maintaining an innocent pose.
“A term I would never utter!” he ejaculated.
I don’t use it…but that’s largely out of cowardice. I once used it in a story, and my editor suggested, politely, that it could be misunderstood. I’ve followed that advice since.
I tend to be rather niggardly in how often I use the term.
Yes, I too have yet to rise to a level of pretention that saying it in a casual conversation would occur to me.
From the looks of it, I never responded to this poll, and it’s probably because none of the answers fit me. I know the word. I generally have no problem with it being used. I would never use it in casual conversation because that’s just not a word that would ever come up in casual conversation with me, except, perhaps, in discussion of the word “niggardly.” It’s not because of racial connotations, but because the word is so far outside my conversational vocabulary, it would never be used.