But that’s the point. Since you would never use that word, choosing to use it will come off as a way to get away with saying “nigger.”
If the word were actually a word people used, I wouldn’t have a problem with people continuing to use it. But I’ve not encountered anyone who fits that profile.
While I have some of the same problems with “thug,” I at least know people do use it, so I don’t generally see a problem. (I do notice and it seems odd.) But that excuse just doesn’t work with “niggardly,” the word people only bring up to tell us how close it is to “nigger” despite having nothing to do with black people.
I actually used the word within the last couple of months with my family. Was quite surprised that my adult daughter - a librarian - took offense. I think it is a fine word, has a specific connotation and a pleasant “mouth feel.”
Probably. But that’s me, my use of the word, and my conversational lexicon. Others may differ. I don’t automatically assume someone is being coy when they use the word “niggardly.” I can see some of my more logophilic friends using it without intending any racial connotations whatsoever.
So what words do people use other than niggardly? Miserly? Stingy? Parsimonious? Or do you eschew parsimonious for fear someone will think you are referring to persimmons? What if folk decide miserly is anti-semitic - wasn’t Shylock a miser? Maybe if I write stingy, people will think I’m talking about bees…
American. I know the meaning. I’ve used it in conversation, but very rarely, and only with people I know aren’t knee-jerking idiots. I’m familiar with a great many words I don’t use in everyday conversation. Sometimes it’s fun to change things up and throw a different word out.
I have never used either word in my entire life. The first I learned as a slur to never use, and the second I already had the word “stingy” for the adjective and “sparingly” for the adverb. You should probably look into the use/mention distinction.
But the question being asked in this thread is “Should they?” I say no. I say that there are too many synonyms that are more likely to be understood and too many people who do use the word to be offensive.
It’s not about ignorance of what the word means anymore. It’s just about the current meaning of the world. It’s a combination of the original meaning becoming rarer and the need by some racists or those who like to offend people to get in a word that sounds like “nigger.”
I’m not saying everyone who uses the word is a racist, but that, since it was dying out anyways, there’s no reason to preserve it as a word that racists can use as a dog whistle.
Stop trying to preserve it as a protest against being politically correct.
Well, it depends on if the sex of the dog is relevant. When discussing breeding, “bitch” is perfectly appropriate in 100% of all circumstances and for all audiences. But most of the time the sex of a dog isn’t important, and it’s usually enough to say “my dog.”
I’ve used it once or twice in a conversation but it’s not common in my vernacular. I believe in freedom of speech but I’m pragmatic enough not to use it in some casual conversation with a black stranger. It’s kind of hard to discuss the etymologies of words when you are in a fist fight because they’ve never heard the word or think you’re just saying it to indirectly insult them. One time I was listening to talk radio while waiting for my food at a drive-thru and they started discussing the word and in rapid succession the host said it a bunch of times and I quickly turned the radio off and I didn’t want the black workers to think I was listening to Aryan XM or something and spit in my food.
It’s not appropriate if your intent is to be understood without unnecessary distraction or confusion. A smart person modifies their language based on who they are talking to.
British – I’d use the word only among close friends, in a self-deprecating “look at my big vocabulary” way – would probably avoid it in front of black friends, of which, as it happens, I have none – I’m an asocial type, with few “meatspace” friends.
This discussion keeps reminding me of Tolkien, in the closing chapters of “The Return of the King”. Aragorn says, re Eowyn’s marrying Faramir (quoting from memory): “No niggard are you, Eomer, to give thus to Gondor the fairest thing in your realm”. JRRT would be liable to get in trouble if he were writing nowadays, over that line – with its potentially being seen as a slur against the black human inhabitants of the south of Middle-Earth, who fight on Sauron’s side in the War of the Ring – the Rohirrim are white, thus generous and moral and nothing like those evil swarthy-complexioned quasi-men down south…
I’m sure that Tolkien – documentedly, no racist by the standards of his time – would, if taken to task about his use here, of “niggard”, respond “stuff your stupid political correctness – it’s an English word, equivalent to mean or stingy – I’ll use it if it suits me, and will you please go and… whatever”.
It is appropriate for use as a learning opportunity in those cases. It’s good for children (for example) to learn not to snigger at perfectly cromulent words.
My father taught P.E. in an all-or-mostly black school in Harlem, in the 1930’s I think. He was one of only two white teachers at the school. He told the story once, that the other white teacher casually used the word “niggardly” in a class lecture once. One (or maybe more?) of the kids went home and said “The teacher called us a bunch of niggers!”, and a mini race riot ensued.
You’re assuming it requires ignorance to find a certain word choice jarring, and as been repeatedly stated in this thread, that’s false.
At any rate, what is the point in reaching for a word that likely requires you provide to a backstory and explanation, when there are plenty of other serviceable, more readily recognizable ones? If your goal is communicate effectively, you shouldn’t be creating “learning opportunities” with your speech. I mean, unless you want to look like a self-important ass.
The burden of comprehension is on the listener. Certainly one must deliver communications at an appropriate level (kindergarteners versus adults), but there’s a certain point in life where we have a responsibility to be mature adults and not get emotional over the use of perfectly suitable words.
Well you’ve just hit on the crux of where we disagree.
The burden of being understood is on the speaker. No one is under any obligation to respect the noises coming out of your mouth. When in Rome you speak as the Romans do; you don’t insist on English because “the burden of comprehension is on the listener”, do you? Of course not, because that’s stupid.
If your speech marks you as a pompous jerk to people who question your motives for using certain words, you will be judged accordingly. As a result you may miss out on all kinds social and professional opportunities. If you don’t care about political savviness, that’s cool. But you gotta be kidding me if “niggardly” is a hill worth dying on, really.
When I was in elementary school, kids would go out of their way to call donkeys “asses”. Because, you know, ass. I’ll leave it up to the reader to guess what kind of response they’d get from adults, and apply that to the topic at hand.