English
Niger
Niger comes from French Niger.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentNiger
- Englishearliest quotation 2023same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentNiger
- Englishearliest quotation 2023same form
Earliest quotation: 2023, Kylie Atwood, American citizen held hostage for 6 years in West Africa has: “An American aid worker who was kidnapped in Niger…”
The story
For further etymology, commonly linked by folk etymology to Latin niger (‘black’), which likely influenced the modern spelling.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted. Some sources give the term to Tuareg roots, deriving it from a claimed gher n-gheren or egereou n-igereouen (‘river of rivers’). Older sources derive Niger, via a series of mistranslations and geographic misplacements by Greek, Roman and Arab geographers, from Ptolemy's descriptions of the wadi Gir (in modern Algeria) and the "Lower Gir" (or "Ni-Gir") to the south.
Every English word from French Niger
Today it means
name A country in West Africa, situated to the north of Nigeria. Official name: Republic of the Niger.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French Niger / Niger