African Country / Racist insult - related?

[flashpig]

Niger, N*gger - Are these words related? If not is this an example of a folk etymology?

[Hippy]

I think the word is a corruption of the word "negro" that is in turn derived from the Latin "niger" meaning the colour black. The river Niger is presumably so named because it looks black.

[tartanwiz]

See my answer under your Q in Body & Soul. As Hippy rightly says, they both originate from 'niger' (Latin for black).

[andy hughes]

The corruption of the word negro into 'ni*+er comes from the accent of the American southerners who kept slaves - they pronounced negro as 'nigrah' which soon mutated into ni**er, together with the unpoleasant attitudes that slave keepers had for black people, i.e., lazy, feckless, stupid, and probably some sort of subhuman species. Happily, things have moved on, unless the upcoming elections prove me wrong?