Fine word.
No child is too young or too old to have their vocab expanded.
Thanks for bringing it up. I’ll be sure to see that all my kids are familiar with this word over dinner tonight.
Surprised this would even fuel a debate on a MB supposedly aimed at fighting ignorance.
A reprimand is entirely inappropriate. Any complaining factions should be provided with dictionaries and instructed to simply read a book. Any book.
Well, we were talking about words that made kids giggle that sound like the terms for body parts (whether correct or not). The kids are laughing for the same reason. They know that the word, be it “nigger” or “penis” is a “bad word”…a word they’re not supposed to say, and they laugh because there’s an ok word that even grownups use that sounds like the “bad word”.
I’m with december on this. There are really two issues going on here. One is whether and under what circumstances “niggardly” is an appropriate word. The second issue is whether it was appropriate to reprimand the teacher for using it.
It may not have been wise to use the word in a fourth grade class in much the same way that it wouldn’t be wise to pronounce the planet Uranus “your-ANUS” when “YOUR-a-nus” is just as good.
But to reprimand the teacher for this is nuts.
I was thinking about the controversy over lunch today. I had gone to Burger King (which I shouldn’t have done…I’m on a diet, but you can only eat so many crackers before you look for real food), and ordered a Whopper (which, if you don’t know, is a sandwich with a beef patty, lettuce and tomato.) After I got my food, I ate and thought about not allowing the use of certain words because they sound like racial or ethnic slurs. The intentions of the people wanting to do this are good ones…they want to nip racism in the bud, and that’s always a good thing, but it bothers me a little bit to see a word discouraged, not because it is offensive, but because it may remind people of an offensive word. I finished off my meal with a piece of cake, and watched the little girls at the table next to me play with their DayGlo stickers. Then finally, as I got up and threw the remains of my meal into the trash, leaving my table spic and span, I thought, "If these language protestors have a chink in their armor, it might be that they use words that sound like ethnic or racial slurs themselves, without ever realizing it.
Whopper, DayGlo and cake are racial epitheths? For what, I wonder.
It’s just a word. It’s a perfectly good word. I didn’t realize it was archaic since it is actually used in my home-- usually in relation to dinner servings.
Okay, so when they get on the playground after hearing the teacher say “niggardly” in class, what will they talk about? Will they stand around correctly using the word in a sentence or will they use it as an opportunity to use the word in a racist context? My vote is for the latter.
Of course, I understand what you’re saying, but I think that (especially since it’s a virtually unused word) the benefits of expanding vocabulary are outweighed by prudential benefits of not using it.
Whopper sounds a bit like wop, DayGlo like Dago, and cake like kike. I admit I was reaching a little. 
Good job, Captain Amazing!
My feelings exactly.
It’s a great word.
No reason not to use it.
No reason not to teach it to children.
No reason to be offended by it.
I’m with Dinsdale. I do not think ignorance is ever the right answer. They will find the word anyway and that will make it worse.
Admittedly, probably the latter. If you give ten year olds the choice between taking the high road or going into the muck, most of them will happily dive into the slime. It’ll get old after a while, though
However, even if you never teach them the word “niggardly”, and they know the racial slur, they’ll still use the racial slur. Besides, unless ten year olds have changed much since I was 10, body functions and sex are a lot more interesting than racial slurs. Give them a choice between inappropriately using niggardly and Uranus, and Uranus wins every time.
Perhaps…and I’m not saying that the word ought not to be used by anyone. It’s just that, the younger the kids, the more one needs to be careful and the less effective such ventures into vocab-land tend to be. . I’m certainly for expanding vocabulary, but at 9 and 10 years old, I’d be happy if they can effectively use the words they hear on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” much less “Nightline.”
Thanks to project Gutenberg, i was able to get this quote
Now, I admit it is not 4th grade reading. However, if you completed High School, you should have read Brontë’s Jane Eyre. So, how exactly do we retire a word that every High School graduate should have been exposed to?
I guess the words bigger and figure will be fazed out next. After all, we could be using ‘safe’ words like larger and diagram :rolleyes:
Moreover, if you do not expose them to the word when they are in school, some day they are liable to make asses of themselves by objecting to its use in front of their children.
The more I think of it, the more subtle benefits can be attached to exposing kids to this word.
Make them understand the importance of a good vocabulary, so they don’t misunderstand someone - or impute wrong to them - thru their own ignorance.
Show them the importance of finding some basic facts before rushing to judgment.
An example of ways different people can make different connections based on something as simple as how a word sounds, or the vocabulary an individual uses.
Demonstrating the ridiculous extremes that can occur in attempts to assuage everyone’s possible sensibilities, no matter how irrational or uninformed.
I’m sure I could come up with more. And I don’t see any down side. Other than that some ignorant person(s) wishes to perceive insult due solely to their ignorance, and is not willing to admit or dispel that ignorance.
Oh, my dear lack of a Lord. Nigger is a racial slur. Sometimes. Niggard(ly) isn’t. People who are offended by niggardly are ignorant.
Just because it sounds like a racial epithet doesn’t mean it is. I heard one Spanish teacher got in trouble for writing the Spanish word for “black” on the board while teaching children the Spanish words for different colors.
I agree that some people should probably lighten up. When I hear the word niggardly, I don’t automatically think of the word nigger. It seems like people are wanting to be protected from their own thoughts, or possible thoughts. I think the teacher should have been supported, and that with the complaints, an opportunity to talk about racism (possibly involving the complaining/concerned parent) was missed.
As for Niger… While still working in a pet store, we would get quite a few comments on the saltwater fish commonly known as the Niger Trigger. Also, a tank of our african cichlids were labeled “assorted africans” (and the south americans were labeled “assorted s. americans”). We received a complaint about the assorted africans label as well, and changed it.
Then there’s the cichlid known as the Black Convict, as opposed to the Pink Convict. One of our customers had placed an ad on our bulletin board wanting to sell some fry, and I had another good customer (a school principal) draw my attention to the ad and ask me about it. It took me a minute to see what she was seeing. I explained to her that this was a type of fish and then added “cichlids” to the ad.
I truly don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or offend them, but it sometimes seems so silly to think about a fish’s name and whether it might be construed as offensive while making a label for its tank. I see the word niggardly in the same light. Until all of the hubbub, I never thought of it being misconstrued as a racial slur. Most of us were taught this word in school at some point weren’t we?
cite? I cannnot imagine that any school principal would be stupid enough to discipline a teacher for teaching her subject.
“Buenas dîias, estudiantes! Ahora estudiamos los colores en español.
Pink es rosa.
Blue es azul.
Yellow es amarillo.
Y black es negro.”
Only an idiot would believe that’s racist.
I have to say I’m touched by such optimism that believes that public school graduates have read the Brontes. but yes, the word should be retired and in this instance sticklers for correctness should yield to general illiteracy. Even though the word is not racist, the controversy it generates makes it too problematic for general use, especially given that there are perfectly serviceable and more common synonyms available.
In the interest of precision, Niger is thought to be a deformation of a berber langauge name for the Niger, gher-n-(i)ghren - likely conformed to the Latin root by classical authors. Versions of the name show up in classical Greek and Roman geography for an African river which is probably the modern Niger.
Niggardly is quite an archaic word, strikes me it’s receiving rather a lot of undeserved attention (and possible rebound in use out of perversity) from this.
Sorry to belabour a point but if this ‘controversy’ is based on stupidity and ignorance then why should we dignify it by appeasing the type of person who would rather cry racism than look in a dictionary? Is there some aspect of this I’m missing, or not considering?