111-510: [REDACTED] Look up N-bomb or n-bomb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. N-bomb may refer to: N-word (euphemisms) Neutron bomb Nuclear weapon 2C-I-NBOMe (psychedelic drug) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title N-bomb . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
222-457: A copyright . In 1883, Twain paid a brief visit to Ottawa , and he visited Toronto twice in 1884 and 1885 on a reading tour with George Washington Cable , known as the "Twins of Genius" tour. The reason for the Toronto visits was to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Twain's upcoming book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , to which he had alluded in his Montreal visit. The reason for
333-798: A stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains , visiting the Mormon community in Salt Lake City . Twain's journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada , where he became a miner on the Comstock Lode . Twain failed as a miner and went to work at the Virginia City newspaper Territorial Enterprise , working under a friend, the writer Dan DeQuille . Twain first used his pen name here on February 3, 1863, when he wrote
444-561: A time traveler from the contemporary U.S., using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. This type of historical manipulation became a trope of speculative fiction as alternate histories . In 1909, Thomas Edison visited Twain at Stormfield , his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909),
555-705: A "wealthy but liberal family"; through her, Twain met abolitionists , "socialists, principled atheists and activists for women's rights and social equality ", including Harriet Beecher Stowe , Frederick Douglass , and utopian socialist writer William Dean Howells , who became a long-time friend. The Clemenses lived in Buffalo, New York , from 1869 to 1871. Twain owned a stake in the Buffalo Express newspaper and worked as an editor and writer. While they were living in Buffalo, their son Langdon died of diphtheria in 1872 at
666-439: A British review and American reviewers understood the change as reflecting American "refinement" and "prudery." A style guide to British English usage, H.W. Fowler 's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage , states in the first edition (1926) that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least
777-556: A Canadian resident; Twain addressed this by his short visits to the country. In his later years, Twain lived at 14 West 10th Street in Manhattan . He passed through a period of deep depression which began in 1896 when his daughter Susy died of meningitis . Olivia's death in 1904 and Jean's on December 24, 1909, deepened Twain's gloom. On May 20, 1909, his close friend Henry Rogers died suddenly. In April 1906, Twain heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all that she owned in
888-469: A Doctorate of Law in 1907. Twain was born two weeks after Halley's Comet 's closest approach in 1835; he said in 1909: I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together". Twain's prediction
999-403: A dilution of the extremely negative perception of the word among the majority of non-black Americans who currently consider its use unacceptable and shocking. In several English-speaking countries, " Niggerhead " or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including commercial products , places , plants and animals , as a descriptive term (lit. 'black person's head'). It also
1110-519: A documentary, No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (1968), about the front-line lot of the U.S. Army black soldier in combat in Vietnam. An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by Robert Lipsyte in 1966, the boxer actually said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." On February 28, 2007, the New York City Council symbolically banned the use of the word nigger ; however, there
1221-594: A dream a month earlier, which inspired his interest in parapsychology ; Twain was an early member of the Society for Psychical Research . Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. Twain continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the Civil War broke out in 1861, when traffic was curtailed along the Mississippi River. At the start of hostilities, he enlisted briefly in
SECTION 10
#17328982565531332-536: A group of women, for the routine purpose of obtaining information. The point: nigga is evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral, or negative attitudes; Kevin Cato, meanwhile, observes: For instance, a show on Black Entertainment Television , a cable network aimed at a Black audience, described the word nigger as a " term of endearment ". "In the African American community,
1443-627: A humorous travel account titled "Letter From Carson – re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnson's; music" and signed it "Mark Twain". Twain's experiences in the American West inspired Roughing It , written during 1870–71 and published in 1872. His experiences in Angels Camp (in Calaveras County, California) provided material for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865). Twain moved to San Francisco in 1864, still as
1554-621: A job elsewhere in the mayor's government. Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain , was an American writer, humorist , and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature ." Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with
1665-462: A journalist, and met writers such as Bret Harte and Artemus Ward . He may have been romantically involved with the poet Ina Coolbrith . Twain's first success as a writer came when his humorous tall tale "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published on November 18, 1865, in the New York weekly The Saturday Press , bringing him national attention. A year later, Twain traveled to
1776-619: A lead by Poultney Bigelow , who had a good experience being treated by Dr. Jonas Henrik Kellgren, a Swedish osteopathic practitioner in Belgravia . They were persuaded to spend the summer at Kellgren's sanatorium by the lake in the Swedish village of Sanna. Coming back in fall, they continued the treatment in London, until Twain was convinced by lengthy inquiries in America that similar osteopathic expertise
1887-707: A local Confederate unit, the Marion Rangers as a Second Lieutenant . Twain later wrote the sketch " The Private History of a Campaign That Failed ", describing how he and his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before their unit disbanded. Twain then left for Nevada to work for his brother Orion, who was Secretary of the Nevada Territory . Twain describes the episode in his book Roughing It . Orion became secretary to Nevada Territory governor James W. Nye in 1861, and Twain joined him when he moved west. The brothers traveled more than two weeks on
1998-511: A major public figure came during the racially contentious O. J. Simpson murder case in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective Mark Fuhrman , of the Los Angeles Police Department —who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of nigger in tape recordings about his police work. Co-prosecutor Christopher Darden refused to say the actual word, calling it "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in
2109-415: A man calls me a nigger, it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again." By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the civil rights movement had legitimized the racial identity word black as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President Thomas Jefferson had used this word of his slaves in his Notes on
2220-447: A princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay." As Twain described it, the pilot's prestige exceeded that of the captain. The pilot had to "get up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cottonwood and every obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of this river for twelve hundred miles; and more than that, must... actually know where these things are in
2331-503: A professor at Princeton decided to stop teaching a course on hate speech after students protested his utterance of "nigger" and a professor at DePaul had his law course cancelled after 80% of the enrolled students transferred out. Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, a student at the College of the Desert challenged his professor in a viral class presentation which argued that her use of
SECTION 20
#17328982565532442-638: A quiet place in which to write and enjoy his cigars. Twain wrote many of his classic novels during his 17 years in Hartford (1874–1891) and over 20 summers at Quarry Farm. They include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). The couple's marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia's death in 1904. All of
2553-636: A respectful alternative. In 1851, the Boston Vigilance Committee , an abolitionist organization , posted warnings to the Colored People of Boston and vicinity . Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the "opprobrious" character of the word nigger , emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored" or "negro". By the turn of the century, "colored" had become sufficiently mainstream that it
2664-570: A satirical pamphlet, " King Leopold's Soliloquy ", in 1905 about Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State . Twain earned a great deal of money from his writing and lectures, but invested in ventures that lost most of it, such as the Paige Compositor , a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but in time overcame his financial troubles with
2775-456: A self-description)". At the trial of O. J. Simpson , prosecutor Christopher Darden referred to it as "filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language". Intra-group usage has been criticized by some contemporary Black American authors, a group of them (the eradicationists ) calling for the total abandonment of its usage (even under the variant nigga ), which they see as contributing to
2886-521: A steamboat captain on the Missouri River. The two liked and admired each other, and maintained a correspondence for many years after Clemens left the river. While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him, and even arranged a post of mud clerk for him on the steamboat Pennsylvania . On June 13, 1858, the steamboat's boiler exploded; Henry succumbed to his wounds eight days later. Twain claimed to have foreseen this death in
2997-524: A time when the use of the N-word is acceptable. For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or reading a script). There is not a way to neutralize the emotion and history behind the word in any context. The use of the phrase 'N-word' was created as a euphemism, and the norm, with the intention of providing an acceptable replacement and moving people away from using
3108-400: A trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!" It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a "niggur". "The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing." By 1859 the term was clearly used to offend, in an attack on abolitionist John Brown . The term " colored " or "negro" became
3219-567: A two-reel short film. It is the only known existing film footage of Twain. Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments. Twain invested mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly the Paige typesetting machine . It was considered a mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $ 300,000 (equivalent to $ 9,471,724 in 2023) on it between 1880 and 1894, but before it could be perfected it
3330-676: A typesetter, contributing articles to his older brother Orion Clemens ' newspaper. Twain then became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River , which provided him the material for Life on the Mississippi (1883). Soon after, Twain headed west to join Orion in Nevada . He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise . Twain first achieved success as
3441-615: A very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks'". The quoted formula goes back to the writings of the American journalist Harold R. Isaacs , who used it in several writings between 1963 and 1975. Black characters in Nella Larsen 's 1929 novel Passing view its use as offensive; one says "I'm really not such an idiot that I don't realize that if
N-bomb - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-416: A white boy say that to me, it means 'White boy, you gonna get your ass beat. ' " Addressing the use of nigger by black people, philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West said in 2007: There's a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say cat , companion , or friend , as opposed to nigger , then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language
3663-685: A work alluding to "the Nigers of Aethiop , bearing witnes". According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first derogatory usage of the term nigger was recorded two centuries later, in 1775. In the colonial America of 1619, John Rolfe used negars in describing the African slaves shipped to the Virginia colony . Later American English spellings, neger and neggar , prevailed in New York under
3774-572: A writer with the humorous story " The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ," which was published in 1865; it was based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California , where Twain had spent some time while he was working as a miner . The short story brought Twain international attention. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction. As his fame grew, Twain became a much sought-after speaker. His wit and satire, both in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and Twain
3885-476: A year-long around-the-world lecture tour in July 1895 to pay off his creditors in full, although Twain was no longer under any legal obligation to do so. It was a long, arduous journey, and he was sick much of the time, mostly from a cold and a carbuncle . The first part of the itinerary took Twain across northern America to British Columbia , Canada, until the second half of August. For the second part, he sailed across
3996-459: Is a form of historical memory for Black people ... When Richard Pryor came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making. In the 2010s, "nigger" in its various forms saw use with increasing frequency by African Americans amongst themselves or in self-expression,
4107-425: Is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times. Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character. In 2011, a new edition published by NewSouth Books replaced the word nigger with slave and also removed
4218-520: Is no penalty for using it. This formal resolution also requests excluding from Grammy Award consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word; however, Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy, doubted it will have any effect on actual nominations. The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came under intense scrutiny for his conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to
4329-515: Is or was a colloquial technical term in industry, mining, and seafaring. Nigger as "defect" (a hidden problem), derives from " nigger in the woodpile ", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles. In the 1840s, the Morning Chronicle newspaper report series London Labour and the London Poor , by Henry Mayhew , records the usages of both "nigger" and
4440-399: Is still largely considered taboo, albeit not as inflammatory as nigger . As of 2001, trends indicated that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth, due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture. Linguist Keith Allan rejects the view that nigger is always a slur, arguing that it is also used as a marker of camaraderie and friendship, comparable to
4551-607: The North American Review . The same year, Charlotte Teller , a writer living with her grandmother at 3 Fifth Avenue, began an acquaintanceship with him which "lasted several years and may have included romantic intentions" on his part. In 1906, Twain formed the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club, for girls whom he viewed as surrogate granddaughters. Its dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. Twain exchanged letters with his "Angel Fish" girls and invited them to concerts and
N-bomb - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-447: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake , and he volunteered a few autographed portrait photographs to be sold for her benefit. To further aid Coolbrith, George Wharton James visited Twain in New York and arranged for a new portrait session. Twain was resistant initially, but he eventually admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him. In September, Twain started publishing chapters from his autobiography in
4773-691: The Old Colony Housing Project in South Boston used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black. Of course, no one considered himself a nigger. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you. I soon found out there were a few black families living in Old Colony. They'd lived there for years and everyone said that they were okay, that they weren't niggers but just black. It felt good to all of us to not be as bad as
4884-681: The Old Norse word nig (stingy) and the Middle English word nigon . In the US, this word has been misinterpreted as related to nigger and taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C., city employee, was compelled to resign after using niggardly —in a financial context—while speaking with black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor Anthony A. Williams offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took
4995-796: The Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for the Sacramento Union . His letters to the Union were popular and became the basis for his first lectures. In 1867, local newspapers The Alta California and New-York Tribune funded Twain's trip to the Mediterranean aboard the Quaker City , including a tour of Europe and the Middle East. He wrote a collection of travel letters which were later compiled as The Innocents Abroad (1869). It
5106-418: The rap and hip-hop music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and is often used to mean homie or friend . Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word nigga is still debated, although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The NAACP denounces the use of both nigga and nigger . Usage of nigga by mixed-race individuals
5217-465: The vogue word Afro-American , an early-1970s popular usage. Some Black Americans continue to use the word nigger , often spelled as nigga and niggah , without irony, either to neutralize the word's impact or as a sign of solidarity. Surveys from 2006 showed that the American public widely perceived usage of the term to be wrong or unacceptable, but that nearly half of whites and two-thirds of blacks knew someone personally who referred to blacks by
5328-622: The "construction of an identity founded on self-hate". In wider society, the inclusion of the word nigger in classic works of literature (as in Mark Twain 's 1884 book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ) and in more recent cultural productions (such as Quentin Tarantino 's 1994 film Pulp Fiction and 2012 film Django Unchained ) has sparked controversy and ongoing debate. The word nigger has also been historically used to designate "any person considered to be of low social status" (as in
5439-446: The 1990s, references to nigger have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction " the N-word " , notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used . In an instance of linguistic reappropriation , the term nigger is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of nigga , whose spelling reflects the phonology of African-American English . The origin of
5550-589: The British and Australian term "mate" or the American "buddy". According to Arthur K. Spears in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006 : In many African-American neighborhoods, nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity. Increasingly, the term has been applied to any person, male or female. "Where y'all niggas goin?" is said with no self-consciousness or animosity to
5661-643: The Clemens family are buried in Elmira's Woodlawn Cemetery . Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla , and the two spent much time together in Tesla's laboratory. Twain patented three inventions, including an "Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments" (to replace suspenders ) and a history trivia game. Most commercially successful
SECTION 50
#17328982565535772-766: The Dutch and in metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch communities; the African Burial Ground in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name Begraafplaats van de Neger (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of neger in American English dates from 1625 in Rhode Island . Lexicographer Noah Webster suggested the neger spelling in place of negro in his 1806 dictionary. During
5883-484: The English /ˈnɪɡər/ , occurring in biologic and anatomic names, such as Hyoscyamus niger (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as Sciurus niger (fox squirrel). Nigra is the Latin feminine form of niger (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as substantia nigra (black substance). The word niggardly (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to nigger , derived from
5994-453: The English language". Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted the N-word for nigger . Niger (Latin for "black") occurs in Latinate scientific nomenclature and is the root word for some homophones of nigger ; sellers of niger seed (used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling Nyjer seed. The classical Latin pronunciation /ˈniɡeɾ/ sounds similar to
6105-631: The Ottawa visit had been to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Life on the Mississippi . Publishers in Toronto had printed unauthorized editions of Twain's books at the time, before an international copyright agreement was established in 1891. These were sold in the United States as well as in Canada, depriving him of royalties. Twain estimated that Belford Brothers' edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer alone had cost him $ 10,000 (equivalent to $ 340,000 in 2023). He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure
6216-615: The Pacific Ocean. Twain's scheduled lecture in Honolulu , Hawaii, had to be canceled due to a cholera epidemic. Twain went on to Fiji , Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka , India, Mauritius , and South Africa. His three months in India became the centerpiece of his 712-page book Following the Equator . In the second half of July 1896, Twain sailed back to England, completing his circumnavigation of
6327-421: The Spanish and Portuguese word negro ('black') and the now-pejorative French nègre . Etymologically, negro , noir , nègre , and nigger ultimately derive from nigrum , the stem of the Latin niger ('black'). 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
6438-430: The State of Virginia (1785), but "black" had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See black pride , and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, Négritude .) In the 1980s, the term " African American " was advanced analogously to such terms as " German American " and " Irish American ", and was adopted by major media outlets. Moreover, as a compound word , African American resembles
6549-400: The United States have occurred at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the Madrid campus of Syracuse University . In June 2020, Canadian news host Wendy Mesley was suspended and replaced with a guest host after she attended a meeting on racial justice and, in the process of quoting a journalist, used "a word that no-one like me should ever use". In August 2020, BBC news, with
6660-432: The age of 19 months. They had three daughters: Susy (1872–1896), Clara (1874–1962), and Jean (1880–1909). The Clemenses formed a friendship with David Gray, who worked as an editor of the rival Buffalo Courier , and his wife Martha. Twain later wrote that the Grays were " 'all the solace' he and Livy had during their 'sorrowful and pathetic brief sojourn in Buffalo ' ", and that Gray's "delicate gift for poetry"
6771-411: The agreement of victim and family, mentioned the slur when reporting on a physical and verbal assault on the black NHS worker and musician K-Dogg. Within the week the BBC received over 18,600 complaints, the black radio host David Whitely resigned in protest, and the BBC apologized. In 2021, in Tampa, Florida , a 27-year-old black employee at a Dunkin' Donuts punched a 77-year-old white customer after
SECTION 60
#17328982565536882-400: The antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay The White Negro . The prosecutor [ Christopher Darden ], his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile he would not utter it. "It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language." — Kenneth B. Noble, January 14, 1995 The New York Times One of the first uses of the N-word euphemism by
6993-452: The autobiographic book Life on the Mississippi (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating reported speech , but used the term "negro" when writing in his own narrative persona . Joseph Conrad published a novella in Britain with the title The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897); in the United States, it was released as The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle ; the original had been called "the ugliest conceivable title" in
7104-512: The city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the race card " to save his political life. The implicit racism of the word nigger has generally rendered its use taboo . Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word"; see below . The use of nigger in older literature has become controversial because of
7215-399: The customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger. The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions . The employee was arrested, and charged with manslaughter . In a plea bargain , the employee pled guilty to felony battery , and was sentenced to two years of house arrest . In 2022, in explaining why
7326-445: The dark". Steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $ 500 (equivalent to $ 18,000 in 2023), payable out of Twain's first wages after graduating. Twain studied the Mississippi, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would "tear
7437-420: The daughter of Richard Pryor and a professor at Smith College , to give a talk opining that the word was leading to a "social crisis" in higher education. In addition to Smith College, Emory University , Augsburg University , Southern Connecticut State University , and Simpson College all suspended professors in 2019 over referring to the word "nigger" by name in classroom settings. In two other cases,
7548-428: The diplomat Charlemagne Tower, Jr. He delivered the speech " Die Schrecken der Deutschen Sprache " ("The Horrors of the German Language")—in German—to the great amusement of the audience. In 1901, Twain was invited to speak at Princeton University 's Cliosophic Literary Society , where he was made an honorary member. In 1881, Twain was honored at a banquet in Montreal , Canada where he made reference to securing
7659-867: The dwindling income and moved to Europe in June 1891. William M. Laffan of The New York Sun and the McClure Newspaper Syndicate offered him the publication of a series of six European letters. Twain, Olivia, and their daughter Susy were all faced with health problems, and they believed that it would be of benefit to visit European baths. The family stayed mainly in France, Germany, and Italy until May 1895, with longer spells at Berlin (winter 1891–92), Florence (fall and winter 1892–93), and Paris (winters and springs 1893–94 and 1894–95). During that period, Twain returned to New York four times due to his enduring business troubles. Twain rented "a cheap room" in September 1893 at $ 1.50 per day (equivalent to $ 51 in 2023) at The Players Club , which he had to keep until March 1894; meanwhile, Twain became "the Belle of New York," in
7770-400: The employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said "Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language." Black listeners often react to
7881-452: The expression white nigger ) or "any person whose behavior is regarded as reprehensible". In some cases, with awareness of the word's offensive connotation, but without intention to cause offense, it can refer to a "victim of prejudice likened to that endured by African Americans" (as in John Lennon 's 1972 song " Woman Is the Nigger of the World "). The variants neger and negar derive from various Romance words for 'black', including
7992-503: The help of Standard Oil executive Henry Huttleston Rogers . Twain eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his declaration of bankruptcy meant he was not required to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet , and predicted that his death would accompany it as well, dying a day after the comet was at its closest to Earth. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri . He
8103-612: The hopeless people in D Street or, God forbid, the ones in Columbia Point, who were both black and niggers. But now I was jealous of the kids in Old Harbor Project down the road, which seemed like a step up from Old Colony ... The word's usage in literature has led to it being a point of discussion in university lectures as well. In 2008, Arizona State University English professor Neal A. Lester created what has been called "the first ever college-level class designed to explore
8214-548: The issue in his speeches, interviews, and writings. In January 1901, Twain began serving as vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York. Twain was in great demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks similar to modern stand-up comedy. He gave paid talks to many men's clubs, including the Authors' Club , Beefsteak Club , Vagabonds, White Friars , and Monday Evening Club of Hartford. In
8325-679: The late 1890s, Twain spoke to the Savage Club in London and was elected an honorary member. He was told that only three men had been so honored, including the Prince of Wales , and Twain replied: "Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine." He visited Melbourne and Sydney in 1895 as part of a world lecture tour. In 1897, Twain spoke to the Concordia Press Club in Vienna as a special guest, following
8436-469: The late 18th and early 19th century, the word "nigger" also described an actual labor category, which African American laborers adopted for themselves as a social identity, and thus white people used the descriptor word as a distancing or derogatory epithet, as if "quoting black people" and their non-standard language. During the early 1800s to the late 1840s fur trade in the Western United States ,
8547-496: The latter often called the " Great American Novel ." He also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and cowrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner . Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri , which later provided the setting for both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn . He served an apprenticeship with a printer early in his career, and then worked as
8658-422: The life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated". It was more than two years before he received his pilot's license. Piloting also gave Twain his pen name from " mark twain ", the leadsman's cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat. As a young pilot, Clemens served on the steamer A. B. Chambers with Grant Marsh , who became famous for his exploits as
8769-500: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=N-bomb&oldid=1162538862 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Nigger In the English language , nigger is a racial slur directed at black people . Starting in
8880-407: The middle of the 19th century. Some authors still used the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of nigger became increasingly controversial regardless of its context or intent. Because the word nigger has historically "wreaked symbolic violence, often accompanied by physical violence", it began to disappear from general popular culture from
8991-426: The most common swear word in hip hop music lyrics. Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested that it continues to be unacceptable for non-blacks to utter while singing or rapping along to hip-hop, and that by being so restrained it gives white Americans (specifically) an impression of what it is like to not be entitled to "do anything they please, anywhere". A concern often raised is whether frequent exposure will inevitably lead to
9102-498: The newly formed International Typographical Union , the printers' trade union . Twain educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. Twain describes his boyhood in Life on the Mississippi , stating that "there was but one permanent ambition" among his comrades: to be a steamboatman. "Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had
9213-458: The rights for The Prince and the Pauper in 1881, in conjunction with his Montreal trip. Eventually, Twain received legal advice to register a copyright in Canada (for both Canada and Britain) prior to publishing in the United States, which would restrain the Canadian publishers from printing a version when the American edition was published. There was a requirement that a copyright be registered to
9324-457: The second half of the 20th century onward, with the exception of cases derived from intra-group usage such as hip hop culture . The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary describes the term as "perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English". The Oxford English Dictionary writes that "this word is one of the most controversial in English, and is liable to be considered offensive or taboo in almost all contexts (even when used as
9435-427: The similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate. In American English , "nigger lover" initially applied to abolitionists , then to white people sympathetic towards black Americans. The portmanteau word wigger ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the hip hop , thug, and gangsta sub-cultures. Norman Mailer wrote of
9546-603: The specific word. When a person violates this norm, it creates resentment, intense frustration, and great offense for many. The following year, screenwriter Walter Mosley turned down a job after his human resources department took issue with him using the word to describe racism that he experienced as a black man. While defending Laurie Sheck, a professor who was cleared of ethical violations for quoting I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin , John McWhorter wrote that efforts to condemn racist language by white Americans had undergone mission creep . Similar controversies outside
9657-427: The term differently, depending on whether it is used by white speakers or by black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as insensitive or insulting; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, or it may be understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of reappropriation . In the black community, nigger is often rendered as nigga . This usage has been popularized by
9768-554: The term. Nearly one-third of whites and two-thirds of blacks said they had personally used the term within the last five years. " Niggers in the White House " was written in reaction to an October 1901 White House dinner hosted by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt , who had invited Booker T. Washington —an African-American presidential advisor—as a guest. The poem reappeared in 1929 after First Lady Lou Hoover , wife of President Herbert Hoover , invited Jessie De Priest ,
9879-487: The theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his "life's chief delight". In 1907, he met Dorothy Quick (then age 11) on a transatlantic crossing, beginning "a friendship that was to last until the very day of his death". Twain was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) by Yale University in 1901 and a Doctor of Law by the University of Missouri in 1902. Oxford University awarded him
9990-458: The wife of African-American congressman Oscar De Priest , to a tea for congressmen's wives at the White House . The identity of the author—who used the byline "unchained poet"—remains unknown. In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War (1955–75), professional boxer Muhammad Ali said, "No Vietcong ever called me nigger." Later, his modified answer was the title of
10101-439: The word injun . The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship ' " that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns. The changes sparked outrage from critics Elon James , Alexandra Petri and Chris Meadows . In his 1999 memoir All Souls , Irish-American Michael Patrick MacDonald describes how many white residents of
10212-432: The word nigga. (not nigger ) brings out feelings of pride." (Davis 1). Here the word evokes a sense of community and oneness among Black people. Many teens I interviewed felt the word had no power when used amongst friends, but when used among white people the word took on a completely different meaning. In fact, comedian Alex Thomas on BET stated, "I still better not hear no white boy say that to me ... I hear
10323-578: The word 'nigger ' ". Starting in the following decade, colleges struggled with attempts to teach material about the slur in a sensitive manner. In 2012, a sixth grade Chicago teacher Lincoln Brown was suspended after repeating the contents of a racially charged note being passed around in class. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools. A New Orleans high school also experienced controversy in 2017. Such increased attention prompted Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor,
10434-401: The word in a lecture was not justified. In 2018, the head of the media company Netflix , Reed Hastings , fired his chief communications officer, Jonathan Friedland, for using the word twice during internal discussions about sensitive words. In explaining why, Hastings wrote: [The word's use] in popular media like music and film have created some confusion as to whether or not there is ever
10545-524: The word lies with the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black". It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word negro . Early attested uses during the Atlantic slave trade (16th–19th century) often conveyed a merely patronizing attitude. The word took on a derogatory connotation from the mid-18th century onward, and "degenerated into an overt slur" by
10656-478: The word was spelled "niggur", and is often recorded in the literature of the time. George Fredrick Ruxton used it in his " mountain man " lexicon, without pejorative connotation . "Niggur" was evidently similar to the modern use of " dude " or "guy". This passage from Ruxton's Life in the Far West illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: "Travler, marm, this niggur's no travler; I ar'
10767-473: The word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in Mark Twain 's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the American Library Association . The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who
10878-700: The words of biographer Albert Bigelow Paine . Twain's writings and lectures enabled him to recover financially, combined with the help of his friend Henry Huttleston Rogers . In 1893, Twain began a friendship with the financier, a principal of Standard Oil , that lasted the remainder of his life. Rogers first made Twain file for bankruptcy in April 1894, then had him transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twain's money until all his creditors were paid. Twain accepted an offer from Robert Sparrow Smythe and embarked on
10989-528: The world begun 14 months before. Twain and his family spent four more years in Europe, mainly in England and Austria (October 1897 to May 1899), with longer spells in London and Vienna . Clara had wished to study the piano under Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. However, Jean's health did not benefit from consulting with specialists in Vienna, the "City of Doctors". The family moved to London in spring 1899, following
11100-615: Was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Although Twain initially spoke out in favor of American interests in the Hawaiian Islands , he later reversed his position, going on to become vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death in 1910, coming out strongly against the Philippine–American War and American colonialism . Twain published
11211-428: Was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages needed only to be moistened before use. More than 25,000 were sold. Twain was an early proponent of fingerprinting as a forensic technique, featuring it in a tall tale in Life on the Mississippi (1883) and as a central plot element in the novel Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894). Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) features
11322-573: Was an attorney and judge who died of pneumonia in 1847, when Twain was only 11. The following year, Twain left school after the fifth grade to become a printer's apprentice. In 1851, he began working as a typesetter , contributing articles and humorous sketches to the Hannibal Journal , a newspaper that Orion owned. When Twain was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City , Philadelphia , St. Louis , and Cincinnati , joining
11433-627: Was at the Brick Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue, New York. He is buried in his wife's family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York . The Langdon family plot is marked by a 12-foot monument (two fathoms, or "mark twain") placed there by Twain's surviving daughter Clara. There is also a smaller headstone. He expressed a preference for cremation (for example, in Life on the Mississippi ), but he acknowledged that his surviving family would have
11544-643: Was available there. In mid-1900, Twain was the guest of newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid at Dollis Hill House , located on the north side of London. Twain wrote that he had "never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit's throw of the metropolis of the world." Twain then returned to America in October 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts. In winter 1900/01, Twain became his country's most prominent opponent of imperialism , raising
11655-585: Was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said "the term 'colored' is not derogatory, [the NAACP] chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used [in 1909, when the association was founded]. It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive." Mark Twain , in
11766-611: Was eerily accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Stormfield , one month before the comet passed Earth that year. Upon hearing of Twain's death, President William Howard Taft said: Mark Twain gave pleasure – real intellectual enjoyment – to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come … His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature . Twain's funeral
11877-691: Was on this trip that Twain met fellow passenger Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister Olivia . Twain later claimed to have fallen in love at first sight . Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in Yale University 's secret society Scroll and Key in 1868. Twain and Olivia Langdon corresponded throughout 1868. She rejected his first marriage proposal, but Twain continued to court her and managed to overcome her father's initial reluctance. They were married in Elmira, New York in February 1870. She came from
11988-540: Was rendered obsolete by the Linotype . He lost the bulk of his book profits, as well as a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance. Twain also lost money through his publishing house, Charles L. Webster and Company , which enjoyed initial success selling the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant but failed soon afterward, losing money on a biography of Pope Leo XIII . Fewer than 200 copies were sold. Twain and his family closed down their expensive Hartford home in response to
12099-655: Was the sixth of seven children of Jane ( née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky , and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a native of Virginia . His parents met when his father, a lawyer called to the bar in Kentucky, tried to help Jane's father and uncle avoid bankruptcy. They were married in 1823. Twain was of English and Scots-Irish descent. Only three of his siblings lived beyond childhood: Orion (1825–1897), Pamela (1827–1904), and Henry (1838–1858). His brother Pleasant Hannibal (1828) died at three weeks of age, his sister Margaret (1830–1839) died when Twain
12210-515: Was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) died three years later. When he was four, Twain's family moved to Hannibal, Missouri , a port town on the Mississippi River that inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Slavery was legal in Missouri at the time, and it became a theme in these writings. His father
12321-413: Was wasted working for a newspaper. Starting in 1873, Twain moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut , where he arranged the building of a home next door to Stowe. In the 1870s and 1880s, the family summered at Quarry Farm in Elmira, the home of Olivia's sister, Susan Crane. In 1874, Susan had a study built, an octagonal gazebo, apart from the main house as a surprise to Twain so that he would have
#552447