What is Niggardly?
The term “niggardly” is used to describe someone who is stingy with money. Due to its unfortunate similarity to a racial epithet, however, this innocuous word has been surrounded with controversy among English speakers for much of the 20th century. As early as 1924, people were confusing “niggardly” with a racial epithet, and in the socially conscious 1990s, several controversies erupted when public officials used the word. Though their use was entirely appropriate for the circumstances, as in the instance of an official who said that he would “need to be niggardly with finances” to cope with budget cuts, the public uproar highlighted the confusion over this word.
