nig·ger (n?g??r)n. Offensive Slang 1. a. Used as a disparaging term for a black person: “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger” (James Baldwin).b. Used as a disparaging term for a member of any dark-skinned people.2. Used as a disparaging term for a member of any socially, economically, or politically deprived group of people.[Alteration of dialectal neger, black person, from French nègre, from Spanish negro; see Negro.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.nigger (?n???) n1. a. a Black personb. (as modifier): nigger minstrels. 2. a member of any dark-skinned race3. nigger in the woodpile old-fashioned offensive a hidden snag or hindrance[C18: from C16 dialect neeger, from French nègre, from Spanish Negro1]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014nig?ger (?n?g ?r) n. usage.: The term nigger is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War. Definitions 1a, 1b, and 2 represent meanings that are deeply disparaging and are used when the speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense. Definition 1a, however, is sometimes used among African-Americans in a neutral or familiar way. Definition 3 is not normally considered disparaging – as in ?The Irish are the niggers of Europe? from Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments – but the other uses are considered contemptuous and hostile.?n. 1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a. (a contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.) b. (a contemptuous term used to refer to a member of any dark-skinned people.) 2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. (a contemptuous term used to refer to a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.) 3. a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised. [1640?50;