Editing Nigger (section)

===Early use===
The word ''nigger'', then spelled in English ''neger'' or ''niger'', appeared in the 16th century as an adaptation of French ''[[wiktionary:nègre|nègre]]'', itself from Spanish ''[[wiktionary:negro#Spanish|negro]]''. They go back to the [[Latin]] adjective ''[[wiktionary:niger#Latin|niger]]'' ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Rahman |first=Jacquelyn |date=2012 |title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=137–171 |doi=10.1177/0075424211414807 |issn=0075-4242}}</ref><ref name=":02">[[Oxford English Dictionary Online]], s.v. ''nigger, n. and adj''.; ''neger, n.'' ''and adj''.; ''N-word, n''.</ref><!--Romance language nouns (typically) derive from the accusative case, not the nominative case quoted in English.-->

In its original English-language usage, ''nigger'' (also spelled ''niger'') was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to "the Nigers of [[Aethiopia|Aethiop]], bearing witnes".<ref>{{cite book |author=Patricia T. O'Conner |author2=Stewart Kellerman |title=Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language |date=2010 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8129-7810-0 |page=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202235/https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], the first derogatory usage of the term ''nigger'' was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Christopher |title=Bestial Traces:Race, Sexuality, Animality: Race, Sexuality, Animality |date=2013 |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8232-4520-8 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202223/https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[colonial America]] of 1619, [[John Rolfe]] used ''negars'' in describing the African slaves shipped to the [[Virginia colony]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |date=January 11, 2001 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123115941/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |url-status=live }} (Book review)</ref> Later [[American English]] spellings, ''neger'' and ''neggar'', prevailed in [[New Netherland|New York under the Dutch]] and in [[Moravian Church in North America|metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian]] and [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] communities; the [[African Burial Ground]] in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name {{lang|nl|Begraafplaats van de Neger}} (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of ''neger'' in American English dates from 1625 in [[Rhode Island]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hutchinson |first=Earl Ofari |author-link=Earl Ofari Hutchinson |title=The Assassination of the Black Male Image |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1996 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82 |isbn=978-0-684-83100-8 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130533/https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lexicography|Lexicographer]] [[Noah Webster]] suggested the ''neger'' spelling in place of ''negro'' in his 1806 dictionary.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/|title=The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|publisher=A.A. Knopf|year=1921|edition=2nd rev. and enl.|location=New York|chapter=Chapter 8. American Spelling > 2. The Influence of Webster|author-link=H. L. Mencken|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html|access-date=August 8, 2007|archive-date=February 6, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206121229/http://www.bartleby.com/185/|url-status=live}}<!--|isbn=978-1-58734-087-1 from Bartleby is not correct--></ref>