I’ve heard the term Winjuns too, but what is a figger?
Just to demonstrate how clueless I am, when I first heard that word a few years ago, I thought to myself “Whigger? The Whig party? What will those kids think of next? The Know Nothing Uproar?”
This is a nice example of what it’s like to be Deaf. You don’t hear that special tone in people’s voices that let you know you should not say something or use a certain word. I kind of miss that so I have to ask.
While I agree that ‘wigger’ could be a dirty word, there is another meaning to it.
Here in Houston, the X community uses ‘wigger’ as the name of the pill form of MDMA. (i.e. Got any wiggers?) Also used is ‘wigged’ (i.e. I wigged last night).
While I know that this goes away from the OP, I just want everyone to know that this word could also be a drug reference as well.
Im surprised that my Websters dictionary actually says that ‘nigger’ has one accetable use:
“nigger”: usually offensive , see usage paragraph below : a black person
2 usually offensive , see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3 : a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons it’s time for somebody to lead all of America’s niggersT all the people who feel left out of the political process— Ron Dellums
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry."
No entry for ‘wigger’ though.