Word.ws English Dictionary

nig-nog

nig-nog noun: a foolish person; hence, a raw and unskilled recruit.

Noun (1)

nig-nog (plural nig-nogs)

  1. (slang) A foolish person; hence, a raw and unskilled recruit.
    • All must be represented on a strict basis of proportion of the number of citizens for whom they cater: Football-pool promoters (six representatives), barrow-boys (two representatives), share-pushers, erks, nig-nogs, [etc.].1953 December 9, Punch, 692/3
    • A straight line, you heaving nig-nogs, a straight line.1962, A. Wesker, Chips with Everything i. iii. 17

Noun (2)

nig-nog (plural nig-nogs)

  1. (ethnic, offensive, slang, slur) A person of color, especially, a black person.
    • He'll need this in a white community – He gets "Sambo" and "Nig-nog" at school already – if he's proud of himself it will be easier for him in the long run.1977, Barbara Tizard, Adoption: A Second Chance
    • We didn't touch their area before but we ran through Brixton and you couldn't see a nig-nog on the street. Any nig-nog walked on the street was dead.2002, Vron Ware, Les Back, Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture

Examples of nig-nog in a sentence

  • ‘Nig-nog’ was used on the railways and elsewhere long before coloured immigrants appeared...1967, “30 Nov. 10/8”, in Times:
  • But when she turned the corner near the park, keeping her head down so that nobody would notice her, she heard someone shout: Little wog, nig-nog!2005, Amitav Ghosh, The Shadow Lines:

Forms of nig-nog

pluralnig-nogs
alternative formnignog

Origin of nig-nog

From the cant word nigmenog, denoting a very silly fellow, according to A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew (c.1698). Compare ning-nong.

A reduplicative form of nigger that became a part of the slang lexicon of people from Maine and other parts of the United States around the middle of the 20th century. It has also been applied to any persons of color, including East Asians, but this is largely exclusive to the UK.

Questions about nig-nog

What does nig-nog mean?
Nig-nog means a foolish person; hence, a raw and unskilled recruit.
How do you use nig-nog in a sentence?
‘Nig-nog’ was used on the railways and elsewhere long before coloured immigrants appeared...
What part of speech is nig-nog?
Nig-nog is a noun.
What is the plural of nig-nog?
The plural of nig-nog is nig-nogs.

Words near nig-nog in the dictionary

  1. nifursemizone
  2. nifurtimox
  3. nifurtoinol
  4. nifurzide
  5. nig
  6. nig-nog
  7. nig-nogs
  8. nigaboo
  9. nigaboos
  10. Nigam
  11. Nigams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nig-nog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-nig-nog.ogg.

Cite this entry: “nig-nog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nig-nog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.