Nig

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Niggard. archaic
  2. 2
    A nigger. ethnic, offensive, slur

    "Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe, He was de nig dat sarved me so,…"

  3. 3
    Clipping of nigga (“friend, fellow black person”). abbreviation, alt-of, clipping

    "Take Blow, my room dawg and fraternity brother from back in the college days. He's a real smoove nig, curly haired handsome, and got mad chick appeal."

Verb
  1. 1
    To behave as a stereotypical black person. Internet, ethnic, intransitive, slur

Synonyms

All synonyms
carlcheap charliecheapskatechurlmiserniggard

Example

More examples

"Cotton-eyed Joe, Cotton-eyed Joe, He was de nig dat sarved me so,…"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English nig, probably of Scandinavian origin; see niggard. Unrelated to nigger.

Etymology 2

Clipping of nigger. In the verb sense, a reinterpretation as if the word contained the suffix -er.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.