> This reminds me of something I heard. I was sitting in Comp. Lit.
> discussion section a week or so ago, and one of the terms given to us by my
> TA was "nigarology" or something like that, which supposedly came from the
> word "niguard". Both of them are defined along the lines of meaning
> "silliness, buffoonary, foolishness" and the like. That struck me as odd
> at the time.
> A day later I'm brushing my teeth and I realize how absolutely
> wrong a word like that is for existing. Why do scholars even both to
> disguise their overt racism? Why mess around; why not just scrawl the word
> "NIGGER" as bold as can be on the chalkboard instead of bothering to create
> these embellished yet transparant terms?
> It Really angered me that this mocking word is being accepted and
> used in scholarship and literature as a legitimate and authentic term.
> Having a bunch of old professors relating 'niguard' to a term in classical
> literature, right out of Volitare, is absurd. I can't believe that term
> for 'foolishness' even survived after all that time. You think such as
> obvious flaw would be disregarded as rubbish after some time, yet it's
> overlooked and taught still.
> Sorry, but I really have a hair up my ass about this it seems; so
> am I just too darn sensitive for my own good, or does it bother anyone else
> that this phoney term is being taught??
The word "nigger" comes from the word for "black" in the Romance
languages--"negre" in Middle French, "negro" in Spanish and Portuguese,
and Latin "niger". Originally it simply meant "black" in the sense we
speak of "black people" today, but it has taken on extremely offensive
connotations. The word itself doesn't contain any offensive elements, but
its history has barred it from polite use.
I can't find "niguard" or "nigarology" in a dictionary; the closest I can
come up with is "niggard", which doesn't have anything to do with either
blackness or foolishness.
The words "niggard" and "niggardly", meaning "stingy", derive from
Scandinavian words, with no relation to the Romance language color terms
above. In Old Norse the word was "hnoggr", and in Old English it was
"hneaw". Due to the cosmetic resemblance to "nigger", many modern English
speakers would be uncomfortable using these words, but that has nothing to
do with any characteristic of the words' history.
If "niggard" is not the word your teacher was talking about, then never
mind. But I'm not familiar with any other similar word.
The word "nigger" has acquired a secondary meaning in recent times.
Here are the meanings listed by the Merriam-Webster dictionary available
at www.m-w.com:
{begin quote}
Main Entry: nig4ger
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&r
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from
Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger
Date: 1700
1 : a black person -- usually taken to be offensive
2 : a member of any dark-skinned race -- usually taken to be offensive
3 : a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons <it's time for
somebody to lead all of America's niggers... all the people who feel left
out of the political process -- Ron Dellums>
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers
of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now
ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in
English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as
offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of
racial hatred and bigotry.
{end quote}
It is possible that your teacher was talking about something related to
that newer meaning, too. I am curious. Let me know if you have more info
or documentation for what the TA was referring to. Maybe a pointer to the
Voltaire reference you mention?
--Eva