What do you think future generations will think of this taboo term? Is it a word or a sound? Is it banned only in the U.S. or all English speaking countries? How about non-English countries? Are there equivalent terms which are banned? What does it mean, anyway? Is its acceptable use limited to one's genetic background? If so, what percentage of preferred genetic traits is required for licensure? Or is it vice versa?
I think future generations will think we have lost our minds...
As I understand it, it used to be a 'legit' word. Meaning 'dirty.'
****** (n.) Look up ****** at Dictionary.com
1786, earlier neger (1568, Scottish and northern England dialect), from French nègre, from Spanish negro (see Negro). From the earliest usage it was "the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks" [cited in Gowers, 1965, probably Harold R. Isaacs]. But as black inferiority was at one time a near universal assumption in English-speaking lands, the word in some cases could be used without deliberate insult. More sympathetic writers late 18c. and early 19c. seem to have used black (n.) and, after the American Civil War, colored person.
"You're a fool ******, and the worst day's work Pa ever did was to buy you," said Scarlett slowly. ... There, she thought, I've said "******" and Mother wouldn't like that at all. [Margaret Mitchell, "Gone With the Wind," 1936]
Also applied by English settlers to dark-skinned native peoples in India, Australia, Polynesia. The reclamation of the word as a neutral or positive term in black culture (not universally regarded as a worthwhile enterprise), often with a suggestion of "soul" or "style," is attested first in the U.S. South, later (1968) in the Northern, urban-based Black Power movement.
Used in combinations (such as ******-brown) since 1840s for various dark brown or black hues or objects; euphemistic substitutions (such as Zulu) began to appear in these senses c.1917. Brazil nuts were called ****** toes by 1896. Variant niggah, attested from 1925 (without the -h, from 1969), is found usually in situations where blacks use the word. Nigra (1944), on the other hand, in certain uses reflects a pronunciation of negro meant to suggest ******, and is thus deemed (according to a 1960 slang dictionary) "even more derog[atory] than '******.' " Slang phrase ****** in the woodpile attested by 1800; "A mode of accounting for the disappearance of fuel; an unsolved mystery" [R.H. Thornton, "American Glossary," 1912]. ****** heaven "the top gallery in a (segregated) theater" first attested 1878 in reference to Troy, N.Y.
niggerhead (n.) Look up niggerhead at Dictionary.com
from ****** + head. A term used formerly in U.S. of various things, such as "cheap tobacco" (1843), "protruding root mass in a swamp" (1859), a type of cactus (1877), and the black-eyed susan (1893). Variant negro-head attested from 1781.
Online Etymology Dictionary
As I wrote in a thread in the Racism group about our usage of the word, if N-word means "******" then isn't "N-word" every bit as offensive?
