The Word Snigger

[Idsertian]

Wait, really OP? That's just... sad. I feel sad now. Sad that people will jump on a word like "snigger" without first thinking to themselves "Oh hang on, perhaps I should check a dictionary first to see what this guy's on about". Especially people in a position of "responsibility" like livestream moderators.

Le sigh.

Hey, OP. Maybe you should eat one of these. I think you must get a little British when you're hungry. XD

In all seriousness, I have heard snigger before, but most people here in Canada just use snicker.

And it'll have the added bonus of this!


Not that I'd know, personally, because I hate Snickers, but I had to add this. I just had to. I couldn't not.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Before now I hadn't even conceived that someone might mistake snigger for ******. Snicker is also a word similar in meaning, but just for the record, I've always known snigger to be a word. But yeah, this is stupid and one of the side effects of censorship. Reminds me of the seemingly random things PSN bans from chat, including tens of thousands of rarely used few-letter-long words that I suppose mean tits.

 

[Jamash]

The word niggle is another victim of the US's inability to rationalise the shame of it's history.

On a sports forum I saw someone make a thread with niggle in the title, as in referring to a niggling muscle injury, and I was surprised at how many Americans had never even heard of the word before and thought it was an offensive term for a black baby... which didn't even make sense in the context the word was used, but that didn't stop the knee-jerk reactions and accusations of racism that words with the letters "nig" seem to cause in some people.

People should just accept that while slavery was bad, and racism is bad, and calling a black person a ****** in an insulting and derogatory manner isn't acceptable, other words with the letters "nig" are perfectly fine in the correct context... or they should just ban all N words by removing the letter N from the US alphabet and trying to make do with 25 letters (but that would ivolve gettig Cogress to approve the rewritig of the Costitutio of the Uited States, so it would ever happe).

 

[Jamash]

I've been called an SJW in the past

Whats an SJW? (PM me if you dont want to say it) im just curious

This is what happens when people use phrases like the N-word. Without actually referring to it its not clear you could mean "nipple" or "nincompoop".

You are either in the 90% of people that know what it means so whats the difference between saying "******" or "the N-word" when it means the same thing. Then theres the 10% who dont have a clue what the "the N-word" implies so they read an article saying "the N-word" and dont have a clue which word beginning with N it could be

For the longest time I got confused when news articles on this site referred to Nintendo as "The Big N".

I'd never heard "Big N" as a name for Nintendo, but had heard people say "the N word" (like it was the only word beginning with N) and in my head I also crossed confused it with the Notorious B.I.G., so for quite a while I always read "Big N" in news articles as "Big Nigga", like Nintendo was some new gangster rapper.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I've always associated it as a mischevious reaction, obviously because it looks so similar to the verb snicker. That was before I knew swear words existed, surprisingly.

people say it all the time,

I disagree, not where I'm from or the places on the Internet I've seen.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, I can understand that.

It's not a very common word, people might simply not have heard it before. Alternatively, you could very easily misread or mishear it. Either way, you could mistake it for racism easily.

(Assuming it wasn't being used in a racist way. I'd imagine people would go round saying "snigger" and "niggardly" and so on on purpose for this, claiming not to be being offensive)

 

[Something Amyss]

This is really stupid. Snigger is a genuine word. Its like avoiding referring to a cigarette as a "fag" because americans use the word as a homophobic slur

At least that's the same word with a different meaning. "Snigger" is a different word that has nothing to do with black people.

Unfortunately we have reached that point. The point where almost anything you say can be misconstrued as vaguely racist. Personally, I don't get it.

Me either. I manage to make it through every day without going out of my way to not sound racist but without being accused of racism or any evidence I've offended anyone by racial insensitivity. And considering I'm accused of being part of the SJW crowd, you'd think I'd be tripping all over accusations of racism. It's amazing. Maybe I should submit myself for study.

I disagree, not where I'm from or the places on the Internet I've seen.

I've primarily seen it in books I had to read in school. It was my impression it was an archaic word, but I guess I was wrong. It seems to be more prevalent than I thought.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I can understand if you haven't heard a word before that you might jump to conclusions when you hear it sounding similar to something else.

However, that does not excuse you from being an adult and looking in a dictionary before you scream and cry about how offended you are regarding a word that you don't even understand the meaning of, for no other reason than "it sounds kinda like this other word that offends me".

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

You know, I'm American and I know both words. I am, of course, familiar with snicker, but it was Dragon Quest 8 and Angelo that taught me of the use of the word snigger, in the form of Angelo's skill "Sarcastic Snigger".

Dunno what causes everyone to be so defensive about the "N word". Maybe...

Spoiler: They should listen to a black man talk about the word

 

[FPLOON]

Hey, OP. Maybe you should eat one of these. I think you must get a little British when you're hungry. XD

Dammit! Now, I'm hungry for a Snickers! *takes out a Snickers bar out of his Snickers drawer*

OT: When I first heard the word "snigger", it sounded like a slang term for a snickering [N-word]... Now, I realize that it was actually another word for "snicker"...

Well, it looks I got to apologize to someone for the month-long misunderstanding tomorrow...

Other than that... who knew words that mean one thing can lead to mean something else either by mistake or through "word evolution"? (I still having trouble adapting to that frame of logic, in terms of words in general...)

 

[mjharper]

Hey, OP. Maybe you should eat one of these. I think you must get a little British when you're hungry. XD

In all seriousness, I have heard snigger before, but most people here in Canada just use snicker.

These were called Marathon in the UK until 1990. God, I'm getting old.

OT: 'Snigger' is clearly a different word from 'snicker', and strictly speaking it has nothing to do with racism. I'd be more likely to use it as well. BUT... if you look at Urban Dictionary, the PC-ness is cited as part of the word, and the are several submissions which basically redefine 'snigger' as portmanteau of, say, 'sand+word' or 'sneaky+word'.

Urban Dictionary is hardly the final arbitrator of correct meaning, but the point is that (at least some) people are using 'snigger' to be offensive and racist. So the problem doesn't really lie with the stream mods.

Back where I come from, 'fag' means 'cigarettes', '******' means 'lump of wood', and of course 'gay' used to mean 'happy'. But personally, I wouldn't use any of those words because of the negative associations and the way that some people use them. I wouldn't want to be associated with such people, and just arguing 'that's not what the word means!' isn't enough.

With 'snigger' we might be seeing an example of language change going on. Maybe it will stick, maybe it won't. But for now I'd err on the side of caution.

 

[shootthebandit]

This is really stupid. Snigger is a genuine word. Its like avoiding referring to a cigarette as a "fag" because americans use the word as a homophobic slur

It's pretty funny really, because depending on whether you're American or British, the phrase "Smoke a fag" can either come across as "Go outside and smoke a cigarette" or "Shoot a gay guy".

Personally I use the phrase a lot, because it's just general slang where I live, but I imagine with no context or anything, it could sound... Well, really weird to someone who doesn't understand foreign slang.

Where I come from "tapping/bumming a fag" from someone is a slang for asking to borrow a cigarette. Imagine going to america and completely forgetting their use of the word and asking to "tap/bum a fag"

 

[Alarien]

So here's my take on the subject:

Snigger is a perfectly normal, non-racist word.

Niggardly is a perfectly normal, non-racist word.

Under no circumstances SHOULD you be banned or called out for their use.

That said, you should also recognize that people are dumb and will automatically associate them both with that other word, which is fundamentally racist. So you should roll your eyes at how dumb people are, sigh, and use another word. That's just a mixture of common sense and tact.

Languages evolve, so the best thing to do is wait for new words to arise to mean those things and use those.

That said, I will probably never stop using the words "retarded" and "handicapped." I should follow my own advice, but neither of those words are inherently bad. They mean what they mean. I believe my rationale for those is that any word that rises to take their place will eventually become assumed to be a negative and/or epithet. Hell, you can't even call people "special needs" these days.

So, yeah... a bit hypocritical I guess, but at least snigger and niggardly are personality aspect whose replacement or alternate words will not automatically reference an accepted racial epithet.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Oh English, you so silly...

Still, I'm glad you managed to get out of not being banned.

 

[TheRiddler]

This problem is referred to as the Scunthorpe Problem, after the English town with an unfortunate expletive hidden in its name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

 

[Rellik San]

This problem is referred to as the Scunthorpe Problem, after the English town with an unfortunate expletive hidden in its name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

You know I was just thinking exactly of that when I wrote the OP.


OT: There seems to be a few people saying I should err on the side of caution here and a few saying I should be cavalier about it and honestly, I hope to remain cavalier about it, simply put, it's the culturally prevalent term where I'm from and we have enough trouble with losing languages like Welsh and Gaelic as it is.

The Americanisation of the language is an unfortunate aspect of net culture, even I occasionally catch myself saying "ass" instead of "arse". Dialect is important for diversity, not just culturally but learning varying dialects can just help to improve ones vocabulary (or as I occasionally call it in moments of stupidity: Word, county, knowledgebasey thingy).

So I guess in conclusion: Read the word in context if someone makes a comment and this btw is the comment I made: "Fisting *sniggers*" Taking words out of context can sometimes be hilarious... as with the aforementioned fisting... other times it can lead to MAHOOSIVE cultural confusion.

 

[Bluestorm83]

People really are overly defensive about anything that could be perceived as even remotely racist. It's getting out of hand. I mean, we should all strive to know more words, to be more verbose. Instead, those of us who want to speak are forced to be niggardly with our vocabularies. It tears me up.

 

[Rellik San]

People really are overly defensive about anything that could be perceived as even remotely racist. It's getting out of hand. I mean, we should all strive to know more words, to be more verbose. Instead, those of us who want to speak are forced to be niggardly with our vocabularies. It tears me up.

To be fair though this is true of all words, not just ones that could potentially cause offence, I can't count the number of times I was working in a bar and had to explain what "decant" meant:

"Would you like me to decant it for you?"
"....What does that mean?"
"It means to pour it into..."
"OH! Why didn't you just say that?"
"Because there's a word for it and that word is 'decant'."

That kind of exchange happened more than I'd care to admit.

 

[SerithVC]

So snigger, a pretty innocuous word, people say it all the time, it's fairly common parlance and is the cultural de facto for a laugh at a smutty joke.

Yet oddly enough, this word, this word that is literally a type of laugh, nearly got me banned from a Live Stream the other night. Why you may ask?

Because someone assumed I was trying to get the "N" word past them, so after hastily defending it, giving links to dictionary and even the host of the stream tell his mods not to be such jack asses and that it's fine and a real word, I wasn't banned for it.

But still, have we become so paranoid of accidentally causing offence (and to be clear, I have no intention of ever causing offence to anyone occidentally or on purpose) that words with genuine meanings, because they almost sound like another word is something we should be wary of?

The channel mods sent me a message after saying in future I should use the word "snicker" instead, despite that not being my cultural defacto term for the same meaning.

So what are your thoughts on the word snigger and other similar words, accidental offence caused by seemingly innocuous words and the general feel of some people that certain words be edited out of cultural vernacular because of possible accidental offence caused by people unfamiliar with the word?

What it is is the fact that the world is too easily offended by everything these days and literally looks for things that can be construed as offensive just to be offended by it. It's like when people tried to claim mario was racist because there were no black characters. Another recent forum post was asking for people to go through the mass effect games and look for everything and anything that could be seen as sexist. I personally don't give a fuck what people say to me, i mean really it's just words. I don't care if something is supposedly sexist because a female character acts more like a man than a woman, or they act too womanly. I don't care if a game i'm playing doesn't include every nationality or if it has seemingly only one. The world needs to learn to stop fucking bitching and moaning every time something isn't exactly how they want it to be. Do racism and sexism exist in our media? Yes. Is it as intentional as people make it out to be? No. There are cases where it is intentional but for the most part it's someone making a story and just happens to either not think about the race of the characters or doesn't want to specify a race/gender and some how accidentally make that that character a racist/sexist stereotype. More related to the word snigger is the fact that all most people see when they look at that word is the '******' part, or they assume it's the moronic meaning people have given it as a shortened form of 'sand ******' which is a derogatory term for people of middle eastern descendency. I will probably get shit for using those words which i find stupid since i am merely explaining something about those words and am in no way trying to use them to be offensive to anyone.

 

[Lieju]

I can understand why someone would think it's racist(since it's not a common spelling in large parts of the world), but once you talk over it, they should understand.

What was the context, though? Did you use it in a sentence, or did you just type 'snigger', which would easily be confused for misspelled '******'?

Because someone assumed I was trying to get the "N" word past them, so after hastily defending it, giving links to dictionary and even the host of the stream tell his mods not to be such jack asses and that it's fine and a real word, I wasn't banned for it.

Wait, isn't that totally reasonable then? They made a mistake, were corrected, and you were not banned.