nigger
n.an extremely offensive and hateful word for a Black person. You should never use this word because it has a long history of being used to hurt and insult people.
n.an exceptionally offensive racial slur directed at Black people, carrying a history of systemic violence and oppression. While reclaimed in specific African American vernacular contexts, it remains a profound taboo for non-Black speakers.
Extremely offensive and taboo; its use by non-Black speakers is universally condemned in modern English.
Borrowed from Middle French nègre (“a black person”), from Spanish negro. Ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/. Compare Danish neger, Swedish neger, German Neger, Dutch neger. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.