My wife is half-Sicilian, as in her father’s parents were both born in the United States to off-the-boat Sicilians. The older generations use a slang for blacks that sounds like nee-vi-dah. Neevida? I can’t fid anything about it through google. Any one know what I’m talking about?
I should clarify that my undergrad was Linguistics and I am honestly curious of the etymology of the word.
Which syllable is stressed, and what part of Sicily?
First syllable, nEE vida. Not sure which part. Don’t know how to type in IPA…
Here’s a previous thread on this or a similar subject. Not much looks like “nivida” though, although there is “facina”.
That thread is why I decided to post this question. Already read it…
I checked a couple of dialect dictionaries. Nothing obvious so far. -iddu is a common Sicilian ending, corresponding to Italian -ello. With Sicilian / Italian, -i- and -e- are often exchanged, and -v- and -b- often switch places as well. A lot of words beginning in n– are Italian an-, un-, etc.
Not that this is much help, I know!
I didn’t know that about Sicilian/Italian. I appreciate the insight.
Edit: plural is Nividas… Didn’t know if that would help. My guess is that it is a bastardization of some sort…
I grew up with a large extended family with Sicilian grandparents and heard Sicilian spoken in the home frequently, but never heard that word. The Sicilian slang word for black people that was told to me was melangiani, which literally means ‘eggplant’, though it also incorporates the Greek word for black. There are different dialects in different parts of Sicily, and my family is from the province of Messina, so for all I know “nivida” might occur elsewhere. The closest resemblance I can find is the word nvidia, which means ‘envy’. The Sicilian word for black is nìuru.
Thank you Johanna. I had heard of melagnani and it’s derivatives. I should also say this term is derogatory.
My in-laws are Sicilian, and I’ve heard the same word used as derogatory slang for blacks. I’ve looked in other places and have seen lots of other slang but never this. At least I know someone else has heard it too 
There is a lot of cross-pollination of slang from different immigrant groups on the East Coast. It’s possible that the word you’re hearing has origins not in Italian but in Yiddish, Polish, or some other European language. I have heard just about every Italian slur that there is, and never heard that one.
Huh, I’d always thought the graphics card company just used a name they’d made up.
I’m wondering if the word in question might be nùmida. English, numidian. The Spanish cognate númida is sometimes used as an “I got big words” synonym for “person from Northern Africa”.
Nope.