"niggerhead" meaning in English

See niggerhead in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: niggerheads [plural]
Etymology: From nigger + head, reflecting a supposed resemblance to a black person's head. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|nigger|head}} nigger + head Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} niggerhead (countable and uncountable, plural niggerheads)
  1. (nautical, dated, now offensive) A bollard made from an old cannon. Tags: countable, dated, offensive, uncountable Categories (topical): Nautical Categories (lifeform): Heliantheae tribe plants
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-B-A2lAak Disambiguation of Heliantheae tribe plants: 10 21 3 10 27 30 Topics: nautical, transport
  2. (geology, archaic, colloquial, now offensive) A geode. Tags: archaic, colloquial, countable, offensive, uncountable Categories (topical): Geology Categories (lifeform): Heliantheae tribe plants
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-MtSANCJ0 Disambiguation of Heliantheae tribe plants: 10 21 3 10 27 30 Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences
  3. (now offensive) A coneflower. Tags: countable, offensive, uncountable
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-SL9FtfEw
  4. (now offensive) A coral or stone outcrop that stands above the surface of the water. Tags: countable, offensive, uncountable
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-gcNwDm5X
  5. (US, Alaska, dated, now offensive) A tussock (clump of plant material), found on the tundra. Tags: US, countable, dated, offensive, uncountable Categories (lifeform): Heliantheae tribe plants Translations (a grass that forms clumps): makura (Maori), pūkio (Maori), pūrekireki (Maori)
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-7RwOJ27z Disambiguation of Heliantheae tribe plants: 10 21 3 10 27 30 Categories (other): Alaska English, American English Disambiguation of 'a grass that forms clumps': 9 9 4 11 42 26
  6. (archaic, countable, uncountable) A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form. Tags: archaic, countable, uncountable Categories (lifeform): Heliantheae tribe plants Synonyms: nigger tobacco
    Sense id: en-niggerhead-en-noun-jesALqUm Disambiguation of Heliantheae tribe plants: 10 21 3 10 27 30 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 9 23 0 3 24 41 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 6 14 1 4 23 52
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: nigger head Derived forms: Nigger Head

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for niggerhead meaning in English (7.8kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "Nigger Head"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nigger",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "nigger + head",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From nigger + head, reflecting a supposed resemblance to a black person's head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "niggerheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "niggerhead (countable and uncountable, plural niggerheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nautical",
          "orig": "en:Nautical",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 21 3 10 27 30",
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "orig": "en:Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "parents": [
            "Composites",
            "Asterales order plants",
            "Plants",
            "Lifeforms",
            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bollard made from an old cannon."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-B-A2lAak",
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "bollard",
          "bollard"
        ],
        [
          "cannon",
          "cannon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nautical, dated, now offensive) A bollard made from an old cannon."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "dated",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Geology",
          "orig": "en:Geology",
          "parents": [
            "Earth sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 21 3 10 27 30",
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "orig": "en:Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "parents": [
            "Composites",
            "Asterales order plants",
            "Plants",
            "Lifeforms",
            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A geode."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-MtSANCJ0",
      "links": [
        [
          "geology",
          "geology"
        ],
        [
          "geode",
          "geode"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(geology, archaic, colloquial, now offensive) A geode."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "colloquial",
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "geography",
        "geology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A coneflower."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-SL9FtfEw",
      "links": [
        [
          "coneflower",
          "coneflower"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A coneflower."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 35",
          "text": "We were sailing swiftly along on a calm and glassy sea, past beautiful headlands and bits of scenery clothed with vivid and luxuriant green down to the water's edge; past glistening coral islands, on whose outer edges pale green billows broke on the white sandy beaches, boiling and seething as they dashed against a row of ugly \"nigger heads,\" as the rocks were called, dotted here and there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Rachel Louise Carson, Jeffrey S. Levinton, The Sea Around Us, page 135",
          "text": "Landward is the almost unbroken wall of submerged reefs where the big niggerhead corals send their solid bulks up to within a fathom or two of the surface.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A coral or stone outcrop that stands above the surface of the water."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-gcNwDm5X",
      "links": [
        [
          "coral",
          "coral"
        ],
        [
          "outcrop",
          "outcrop"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A coral or stone outcrop that stands above the surface of the water."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Alaska English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 21 3 10 27 30",
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "orig": "en:Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "parents": [
            "Composites",
            "Asterales order plants",
            "Plants",
            "Lifeforms",
            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1912, Appalachia, volume 12, page 51",
          "text": "These plants fill the interstices between the grasses and tiny shrubs that make the outer, fuller form of the niggerhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Peter A. Coates, The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Controversy, page 108",
          "text": "Responsible in large part for the difficulties of movement to which the geologists referred were tussocks, still known as “niggerheads” in the 1930s. The “niggerhead,” according to Bob Marshall, “among the gifts of nature, ranks as the most cursed.[…]”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, James Campbell, The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness, page 65",
          "text": "Much of the land is tundra, a mass of spongy, waterlogged clumps of sphagnum moss called tussock, muskeg, hummock, or in the vernacular of old-time Alaskans “niggerheads.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Kit Cain, Flying The Yukon's Bush, page 30",
          "text": "From the air, the bright green grassy floor of the tundra looks as smooth as a golf course fairway, but a closer inspection reveals peaty tussocks of crabgrass called niggerheads spaced just far enough apart for a foot to twist clumsily between. Walking on the frost-formed niggerheads is very much akin to walking across a gymnasium floor covered by thousands of glued-in-place softballs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Otis Hammonds, As the Hawks... Free of Earth's Bounds, Xlibris, unnumbered page",
          "text": "This sloshing was compounded by the fact we were unable to keep in step with each other due to the many and various sized niggerheads (hard tussocks in tundra) that would attempt to roll from under us as if one was stepping on balls ranging in size from softballs to basketballs, with each step if unable (most of the time we could not) to avoid.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tussock (clump of plant material), found on the tundra."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-7RwOJ27z",
      "links": [
        [
          "tussock",
          "tussock"
        ],
        [
          "tundra",
          "tundra"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Alaska",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Alaska, dated, now offensive) A tussock (clump of plant material), found on the tundra."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "countable",
        "dated",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "9 9 4 11 42 26",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
          "word": "makura"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "9 9 4 11 42 26",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
          "word": "pūkio"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "9 9 4 11 42 26",
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
          "word": "pūrekireki"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "9 23 0 3 24 41",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 14 1 4 23 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 21 3 10 27 30",
          "kind": "lifeform",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "orig": "en:Heliantheae tribe plants",
          "parents": [
            "Composites",
            "Asterales order plants",
            "Plants",
            "Lifeforms",
            "All topics",
            "Life",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form."
      ],
      "id": "en-niggerhead-en-noun-jesALqUm",
      "links": [
        [
          "chew",
          "chew"
        ],
        [
          "tobacco",
          "tobacco"
        ],
        [
          "plug",
          "plug"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic, countable, uncountable) A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "nigger tobacco"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "nigger head"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "niggerhead"
  ],
  "word": "niggerhead"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "en:Heliantheae tribe plants"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Nigger Head"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nigger",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "nigger + head",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From nigger + head, reflecting a supposed resemblance to a black person's head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "niggerheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "niggerhead (countable and uncountable, plural niggerheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English offensive terms",
        "en:Nautical"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A bollard made from an old cannon."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "bollard",
          "bollard"
        ],
        [
          "cannon",
          "cannon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(nautical, dated, now offensive) A bollard made from an old cannon."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "dated",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "en:Geology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A geode."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "geology",
          "geology"
        ],
        [
          "geode",
          "geode"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(geology, archaic, colloquial, now offensive) A geode."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "colloquial",
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "geography",
        "geology",
        "natural-sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English offensive terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A coneflower."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "coneflower",
          "coneflower"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A coneflower."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 35",
          "text": "We were sailing swiftly along on a calm and glassy sea, past beautiful headlands and bits of scenery clothed with vivid and luxuriant green down to the water's edge; past glistening coral islands, on whose outer edges pale green billows broke on the white sandy beaches, boiling and seething as they dashed against a row of ugly \"nigger heads,\" as the rocks were called, dotted here and there.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Rachel Louise Carson, Jeffrey S. Levinton, The Sea Around Us, page 135",
          "text": "Landward is the almost unbroken wall of submerged reefs where the big niggerhead corals send their solid bulks up to within a fathom or two of the surface.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A coral or stone outcrop that stands above the surface of the water."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "coral",
          "coral"
        ],
        [
          "outcrop",
          "outcrop"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A coral or stone outcrop that stands above the surface of the water."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Alaska English",
        "American English",
        "English dated terms",
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1912, Appalachia, volume 12, page 51",
          "text": "These plants fill the interstices between the grasses and tiny shrubs that make the outer, fuller form of the niggerhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Peter A. Coates, The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Controversy, page 108",
          "text": "Responsible in large part for the difficulties of movement to which the geologists referred were tussocks, still known as “niggerheads” in the 1930s. The “niggerhead,” according to Bob Marshall, “among the gifts of nature, ranks as the most cursed.[…]”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, James Campbell, The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness, page 65",
          "text": "Much of the land is tundra, a mass of spongy, waterlogged clumps of sphagnum moss called tussock, muskeg, hummock, or in the vernacular of old-time Alaskans “niggerheads.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Kit Cain, Flying The Yukon's Bush, page 30",
          "text": "From the air, the bright green grassy floor of the tundra looks as smooth as a golf course fairway, but a closer inspection reveals peaty tussocks of crabgrass called niggerheads spaced just far enough apart for a foot to twist clumsily between. Walking on the frost-formed niggerheads is very much akin to walking across a gymnasium floor covered by thousands of glued-in-place softballs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Otis Hammonds, As the Hawks... Free of Earth's Bounds, Xlibris, unnumbered page",
          "text": "This sloshing was compounded by the fact we were unable to keep in step with each other due to the many and various sized niggerheads (hard tussocks in tundra) that would attempt to roll from under us as if one was stepping on balls ranging in size from softballs to basketballs, with each step if unable (most of the time we could not) to avoid.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A tussock (clump of plant material), found on the tundra."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "tussock",
          "tussock"
        ],
        [
          "tundra",
          "tundra"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Alaska",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Alaska, dated, now offensive) A tussock (clump of plant material), found on the tundra."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "countable",
        "dated",
        "offensive",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "chew",
          "chew"
        ],
        [
          "tobacco",
          "tobacco"
        ],
        [
          "plug",
          "plug"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic, countable, uncountable) A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "nigger tobacco"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "nigger head"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
      "word": "makura"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
      "word": "pūkio"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "a grass that forms clumps",
      "word": "pūrekireki"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "niggerhead"
  ],
  "word": "niggerhead"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.