house nigger
- noun
- Slur
:
[Ofensivo] término despectivo para un esclavo doméstico o una persona negra que sirve intereses de los blancos
- Historians warn against using house nigger outside educational or historical contexts due to its offensive nature.
Examples
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Don't ever call someone a house nigger!
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The documentary discussed how the term house nigger was used to divide enslaved people.
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He condemned the use of house nigger as both racist and deeply hurtful.
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The term house nigger is deeply offensive.
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The term 'house nigger' is often used in discussions about the painful history of racism.
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Many people find the label 'house nigger' deeply offensive and inappropriate in modern conversation.
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In historical texts, the phrase 'house nigger' illustrates the complex dynamics of slavery and power.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is partly compositional: a learner who knows 'house' and the racial slur can infer it refers to a Black person associated with a household (e.g., a domestic worker). However, the full historical and deeply derogatory connotations—its use in slavery contexts and the additional sense of someone perceived as serving white interests—depend on sociocultural knowledge and are not predictable from the words alone, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
House nigger comes from the time of slavery. It named an enslaved Black person who lived and worked inside the owner's house instead of the fields, so others used the word to say that person 'served' white people or was a 'traitor' to their own community, and today it is an extremely offensive racial insult.
