Dictionary

house nigger en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

By analogy with slaves that worked predominantly indoors during US slavery who were trained with more skills than basic field hands or plantation niggers.

Meanings

1. (dated, offensive) A black slave that worked as a domestic as opposed to manual laborer.
   • If massa was sick, house nigger would come 'round and say, “Massa we sick, ain't we? 2008, Julia L. Mickenberg, Philip Nel, Tales for little rebels: a collection of radical children's literature, page 195:
2. (derogatory, ethnic, idiomatic, slur) A subservient or accultured black person; an Uncle Tom or black race traitor.
   • "You look like a house nigger." 2003, John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle, page 162:

Forms