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nig·gard

(nĭg′ərd)

A stingy, grasping person; a miser.

adj.

Stingy; miserly.

[Middle English nigard, perhaps from nig, stingy person, of Scandinavian origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

niggard

(ˈnɪɡəd)

a stingy person

adj

archaic miserly

[C14: perhaps of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish dialect nygg and Old English hnēaw stingy]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nig•gard

(ˈnɪg ərd) Sometimes Offensive.
n.

1. an extremely stingy person.

adj.

2. niggardly; stingy.

[1325–75; Middle English nyggard=nig niggard (< Scandinavian; compare dial. Swedish nygg; akin to Old English hnēaw stingy) + -ard -ard]

usage: The words niggard and niggardly are sometimes perceived as insulting because they sound like the highly offensive word nigger. However, niggard dates back to Middle English. The first element nygg-, nig- was borrowed from a Scandinavian source, and -ard is a pejorative suffix. The English word niggardly is a modern English formation from niggard. Therefore the two words are not etymologically related to nigger. See also nigger.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

niggard - a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend

scrooge, skinflint, churl

hoarder - a person who accumulates things and hides them away for future use

pinchgut - a niggardly person who starves himself (and others)

niggard

noun

A stingy person:

miser, Scrooge, skinflint.

Informal: penny pincher.

Slang: cheapskate, stiff, tightwad.

adjective

Ungenerously or pettily reluctant to spend money:

cheap, close, close-fisted, costive, hard-fisted, mean, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, penny-pinching, penurious, petty, pinching, stingy, tight, tightfisted.

Translations

niggard

n (= miser) → Geizhals m (pej)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

To this change (which in some particulars is melancholy to one who knew the country in its infancy), it may be added that the Otsego is beginning to be a niggard of its treasures.

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What lavish plenty reigned around?--Warwick feasting his retainers with beef and ale, was a niggard to the noble Mehevi!--All along the piazza of the Ti were arranged elaborately carved canoe-shaped vessels, some twenty feet in length, tied with newly made poee-poee, and sheltered from the sun by the broad leaves of the banana.

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"Your chief is either a niggard, or you are a fool, to come empty-handed into the mountains.

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"'Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he who owns it is not a niggard of its use.

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The truth of this remark is indeed shown by that old canon in natural history of Natura non facit saltum.' We meet with this admission in the writings of almost every experienced naturalist; or, as Milne Edwards has well expressed it, nature is prodigal in variety, but niggard in innovation.

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But this indication of his taste for good cheer, joined to the annunciation of his being a follower of the Court, who had lost himself at the great hunting-match, cannot induce the niggard Hermit to produce better fare than bread and cheese, for which his guest showed little appetite; and ``thin drink,'' which was even less acceptable.

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"Thou mayest suppose, Lothario my friend, that I am unable to give sufficient thanks for the favours God has rendered me in making me the son of such parents as mine were, and bestowing upon me with no niggard hand what are called the gifts of nature as well as those of fortune, and above all for what he has done in giving me thee for a friend and Camilla for a wife- two treasures that I value, if not as highly as I ought, at least as highly as I am able.

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The Duke of Vanholt's an honourable gentleman, and one to whom I must be no niggard of my cunning.

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I was just human, and I was taking the path in the world that men took--men whom I admired, if you please; full-blooded men, lusty, breedy, chesty men, free spirits and anything but niggards in the way they foamed life away.

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The authorities of the London and Suburban Bank were no niggards. They recognized that a man is not a machine.

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I canno' blame thy sighs, an teirs, sin hevin Sae just a patent to thy grief hais given: The churl, whase niggard ene wald no disburse A teir, ower a tendir fader's herse, Cud no forbear t' outweep a winter shour, To think immartal Sawney is nae mare.

The Afterlives of Allan Ramsay in the British Periodical Press, 1720-1870