I do not usually defend myself on issues that are minute but about a year ago I had a blazing debate going on in my blog in which a dude asked me out of nowhere what the word niggardly meant. I answered that it was a twisted slang version for a lazy person(something to that affect) And of course this inferior superion scoffed at me for not knowing the meaning which I at that time did not comment on nor did I care to because the word if any one desired to, couldn't apply to me and may never apply to me, and since I have looked up the word still does not apply to me. But the diseased Yak was proffering that I must be such a person (in so many words) insisted that I probably did not know the meaning of such.
Funny thing about the tracking software that I have. It has dug up this strange google search done last year and and though I do not appear to be able to do much with these pages as far as where the links and threads came from; at the top of the page was one of the answers to this cumquats attempts at proving I was less than worthy of being listened to(something else I don't worry about). Whether you listen or read my stuff is immaterial to me. What you think about me is also immaterial. However along the line of PBAB I decided to tell you where the word niggardly truly originates from as far as it's usage here in the U.S. is concerned.
In the Latin based languages there is a word "negro" which means black (French, Italian, or Spanish mainly). During that onerous period early in this continents settlement by Europeans 3 to 4 hundred years ago when slave labor was being imported from North Africa these people were called negros.
Now here is the interesting thing with languages. As you travel down life's little road; people come and they go over the centuries, and as history would have it the U.S. was born and what do you know Walla!; a crap shoot on who would become wealthy. Some of these men (or wimmin) came from the pits and BB's of life. And most never really set aside their particular usage of the language. My point is some strange lowlife slang terms come into common use such as the twisted back woods version of negro which became the slang term (I hate even entering this word into my blog) n____r.
Of course their are people out there like me who enjoy taking words apart just to see what makes them tick. And like me once you kind of get the gist of the way the scholars of ancient Greece and Rome created their language(rather ingenious I would say) why you can actually create new words in a kind of cut and paste way ( a thing I get a rather big kick out of). Anyway someone noticed in a rhyming way that these two words were alike.
Now let us look at some of the definitions where Mr. braniac got his idea that I did not know what this word meant. To do this I will pull up some of Dictionary stuff available to me from one of the premier companies:
© 2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Etymology: Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse hnoggr niggardly; akin to Old English hnEaw niggardly
1 : grudgingly mean about spending or granting : BEGRUDGING
2 : provided in meanly limited supply synonym see STINGY
One thing we have to remember about our current semi-official definitions of the American version of English. They are the current version of the words as we see them here in the U.S.. Not the definitions as used overseas. You see in these other countries these words still have permanant meaning, they are the words for black. And there is nothing disparaging about the color black. In fact the only reason there is any thing disparaging about the word black is because we have at an intellectual level attached negative connotations to them which I want to add, is not permanent. I suppose I could digress at this point about the mentally unhealthy aspect of not being able to let go forgive and forget sort of stuff. But the main string here is the utter destruction of an idea that I may be an idiot as espoused by an individual whom shall remain faceless to me(he better hope he does). Imagine the consequences of a guy coming up to me and identifying himself as the dude who got almost as rude as a man dares get with another. In other word them's fightin words. I by the way never did learn how to fight. I did not take my training that way. The arts I learned were for the battlefield. They are for killing---not for a knockdowndragout fist fight. They,re extremely effecient and I became proficient at them. I do not and will not maintain them in myself for any other purpose. I will soften this though by saying that as a common citizen today I hopefully will never see a time I might have to use these tools.
Any way back on the first track, the reason for this particular excerpt is because of the similarities to a relatively extinguished idea that a certain race of people used to be lazy. And relates to the probable reason for the flanging (fun slanging)of the word. And was utilized because it sounds like n____r. Thereby meating out a double whack in not only calling a person stingy but relating a person to; then considered savages, in of course a plausibly deniable way. In a side thought: this idiot was calling me stingy or begrudging. Which he could have not known, and as far as he or I know about each other we could have fallen off the planet by now. And if he was using this word at me for any other meaning then the vegy brain in accusing me of not knowing the meaning of the word..........did not know the meaning of the word. To me he would then be just another intellectual wannabe. A living breathing Oxymoron otherwise known as an intellectual moron.
At the least he would be person whom once decided that another is not going to see things his way instead of going his own way peacefully has to resort to insults. Not the American way.
... Definition for the day.A... a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly,(b) didn't know howto use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c ... I kyped this from this guy ... staqrsplash.blogspot.com/ 2004_04_01_staqrsplash_archive.html - 101k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages
Issue of February 18, 2004... what she has "bagged," "hocked," "kyped" or "snitched," using the particular word... In the 18th century, "rink" took on the meaning of "a space of ice ...www.word-detective.com/021804.html - 46k - Cached - Similar pages
As far as the continuing of his insult here is the answer. Of course I did not use the Hebrew word in it's absolute correct way but most people can see and know that it is the slangified usage. And in the manner I used it, for the fun of it. I have to say that in snatching an article from another I do not claim it as my own and make every effort not to plagerize it. In other words I give credit where credit is due and if I can provide people with the pertinent links which substitute for footnotes then I do. If I can not then I write in such a manner as to not quote them and try to give some reference to where I learned this info. If not then I make it my supposition which then of course becomes correctable or debatable. In some cases I am actually fishing for the info in perhaps providing incorrect information playing to the proud. Sometimes I do this in the hunt for the proverbial bees nests so's I can whack them and see what mess I can make. And if your wondering yeah I get stung a bit, but you know the way it is. You can't get honey with out disturbing the nest.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment