A Boring Dystopia

From Meriam-Webster's entry on the word

Did the definition of n----r change?

There is a widespread belief that the original meaning of n----r, as defined in dictionaries, was "an ignorant person," and a related belief that current dictionary definitions describing its use as a hateful, racist epithet are a recent change. We do not know the source of those beliefs, but they are not accurate. The word was first included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1864, at which time it was defined as a synonym of Negro, with a note indicating that it was used "in derision or depreciation." There has never been a definition like "an ignorant person" for this word in any subsequent dictionary published by this company. Nor do we know of such a definition in any earlier dictionary.

There's been an attempt among white racists over the years to try and redeem the hard-r N-word. They'll say that it originally meant just an ignorant or foolish person in general, not only black people specifically. But this is a historical fiction. It's always been used as a slur against black people. It was originally a complete synonym for "negro." If you asked Yarvin, and he didn't just admit outright to being a flaming racist, he would likely justify it by making a claim like this. He would claim that he's saying these billionaires are just corrupt and foolish. He would say that it's OK to use the word, as he's not referring to black people, just ignorant and lazy people in general. He would say he's using the non-racist definition of the n-word. But again, this is a historical fiction.

Sometimes racists will cite words like "niggardly", meaning cheap or stingy, as an example of how the n-word could be used in ways not applying just to black people. Niggardly is a word that sounds like the n-word but actually does have a non-racist history. They'll try to link niggardly to the hard-r n-word. But what they ignore is that the word niggardly has a completely different etymological root. Niggardly shares roots with words like niggling, tracing back to the 13th century nig, meaning simply a stingy person. The n-word however, as Meriam-Webster notes, derives directly from the Spanish negro.. Racists will connect the n-word to words like niggardly, niggling, etc., citing their real history as non-racist words, and say that the n-word can also be used non-offensively because of this. But there is no common etymological root between the hard-r n-word and similar sounding words that do actually have a non-racist history.

Of course, it's all ultimately a moot point. In polite society today, most people understandably avoid using any word that remotely sounds like the n-word. See controversies around the word niggardly. And really, there's little reason to use words like niggardly, even if one could argue that they're technically not racist. They just sound way too similar, and there's plenty of other perfectly valid words to use in their place. And ultimately, someone could just as easily be hurt or offended by words that sound similar to the n-word even if they're technically not directly related. The words are best avoided, as they just end up hurting people for no good reason, even if some etymologist might argue they're not directly related.