I’m sure you’re wrong, but they are synonymous.
I don’t even let my wife yell at me for fear of being branded a racist.
Goddamn nagger gotta learn her place.
“No, she’s a cute little white gal, but our third child was a nagger, an’ that’s why I want a day-vorce”.
Same here, except that I’ve never read Redwall.
I use the word, but I spell it, and say it, with a “ck” in the middle. I always got the impression that sniggering would cause you to be embarrassed if your Mom saw you doing it.
I use it. It’s a useful word to describe a specific type of laughter.
I would never say it because most people I talk to probably don’t know the word. However I’ve used it in writing a fair amount. I like it much better than snicker. Which, BTW, doesn’t read as the same thing to me. Snickering is a laugh that sounds a certain way (in my head).
I use both “snigger” and “snicker” - they’re different words to me. I’d never even thought about the fact that people might think I meant sblackperson.
Hilariously, the guy who was reading out the descriptions of baskets they were raffling off at our inservice day yesterday - I don’t know what the hell he said, but our whole table was sure he said “nigger”. It was an artistic basket, full of work by “artists, photographers, niggers, and painters”. I KNOW, obviously, he didn’t say what we thought he said - but what on earth did he actually say?
I have on a couple of occasions run thorugh synonyms for “laugh” when I was talking for some reason, which would include “snigger” along with chortle, guffaw and titter.
Oh, I voted wrong. I use snicker, not snigger. Heck, Firefox doesn’t even consider it a legitimate word. But I wouldn’t have a problem with snigger because of two things: one, the letter S is the easiest consonant in the world to hear, and, two, I’ve never encountered anyone who tried to use it as a way to sneak a bad word into a conversation.
UK here, I voted yes.
Very, very common over here and have never even noticed a similarity to other less well-regarded words.
It is useful as it describes a specific type of laughter (Scooby-do “sniggers”) and other words like “snicker” don’t work (Mutley “snickers”).
Another word we use a lot is “niggle” or “niggled”. Again, very specific and useful and I can’t ever recall anyone taking the slightest offence or notice of any of the above.
Context is everything, it is the reason I can use “cock” “balls” “chink” “spick” and “fanny” in certain situations (though rarely in the same sentence) and expect reasonable people not to be offended.
Knitters?
“Let’s see if the censor catches this one!” Tom sniggered.
I don’t think it’s offensive, but it just doesn’t come up for me. All that it brings to mind is My Fair Lady:
Eliza: Here! What are you sniggering at?
Freddy: The new small talk, you do it so awfully well.
Eliza: Well if I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn’t?
Knitters! Of course! Knitters! We couldn’t figure that out for love nor money!
Same here.
Never! I keep a pet capuchin on my porch, but I refer to him as the verandah primate just to be safe.
Snigger yes, Snicker is a chocolate bar.
Let’s hope you didn’t have any bleeding reds…
I use snigger and snicker in slightly different ways.
I agree with the Scooby-do reference, that’s a good snigger. While I wouldn’t call it malicious, I always get the impression that the one sniggering is getting some enjoyment out of someone’s misfortune or maybe just gleeful over mischief.
To me a snicker is merely a sarcastic laugh. Like a derisive snort or huff. Depending on context though it can mean exactly the same thing as snigger.
Never heard the Brit/US thing, interesting.