N-word - def. not covered

[Benjamin Barrett]

That seems to be in line with the OED and AHD. These uses seem more specific, but perhaps not. BB

On Dec 1, 2011, at 6:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>
> Try HDAS, def. 3: "Now esp. _Black E._ a reprehensible person (of any
> race); lout."
>
> 1836-1997 (i.e., the year of compilation).
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 10:35 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Caveat lector: If not apparent from the subject line, this has a lot of offensive language.
>>
>> About a year ago, a Michigander white female friend of mine who is a transplant to Hawai'i shocked the other three of us in the room when she went off on a rant about niggers. To paraphrase, she said that a nigger was someone who didn't work, who lived on the government. She explicitly said that the word had nothing to do with race.
>>
>> I definitely can recall the word being used with the connotation of being lazy as a child. The OED provides a couple of definitions of the n-word where race does not matter. Nothing hits this exactly, however. I think the closest is:
>>
>> OED
>> 2b. Any person whose behaviour is regarded as reprehensible. derogatory.
>>
>> The AHD is similarly close:
>>
>> 2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive . a person of anyrace or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant,etc.
>>
>> Wiktionary has nothing even close.
>>
>> Not being productive is also made explicit, with a twist, in the HBO series _Sopranos_, sixth season "Kennedy and Heidi" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_and_Heidi). It is scene five, "Wrong Neighborhood." Tony's son AJ is hanging with his friends when one of them doors a bicyclist (played by Bambadjan Bamba). The bicyclist is black and the dooring friend calls the bicyclist the n-word.
>>
>> The bicyclist says, "I am not a nigger. I am from Somalia, I go to school and I work. Do not call me a nigger!"
>>
>> Here, not only is being productive the issue, but apparently being a _recent_ African immigrant evidently disqualifies him from fitting the definition.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org