nigger killer

Noun

nigger killer (countable and uncountable, plural nigger killers)

1. (archaic, offensive) A kind of sweet potato.
   • Next in keeping quality come the Hayti Yam, the Red-skinned, Brimstone, Nigger Killer; and the last of the potato section is the Nansemond.1907, L. H. Bailey, The Horticulturalist’s Rule-Book: A Compendium of Useful Information for Fruit-Growers, Truck-Gardeners, Florists, and Others, new and revised edition, New York: The Macmillan...
   • Among the best known in this class are the "white” and the “purple” West Indian Yam, “ Brazilian Yam,” “Nigger Killer," "Hayti,” “Spanish,” “San Domingo,” “Davis Enormous” and a number of others.1914, Florida. Dept. of Agriculture, Florida Quarterly Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, page 64

   Synonyms:

   African red, black Spanish, negro choker, nigger choker, Orleans red

2. (archaic, offensive, uncountable) Inferior rum.
   • This is in fact the poisonous stuff called 'nigger-killer' which I have already spoken of.1897, The Nineteenth Century - Volume 42, page 775
   • As a matter of fact, the Congo State, from the first period of its exitsence as the Congo Association, has consistently set its face against the spirit traffic, and it is due to the measures of the King of the Belgians, and to his imperative injunctions, that the illicit importation of spirits has...1898, Demetrius C. Boulger, The Congo State, or The Growth of Civilisation in Central Africa, London: W. Thacker & Co.
3. (contains an ethnic slur) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see nigger, killer (a killer of black people).
   • “Nigger killer!” ejaculates M‘Fadden, “let go there!”1855, Francis Colburn Adams, Our World: Or, the Slaveholder’s Daughter, New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, page 388
   • If a man does not provide well for his slaves, it soon becomes known; he gets the name of a “nigger killer,” and loses the respect of the community.[1862, Frederick Law Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller’s Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States, 2nd edition, volume 1, New York: Mason Brothers, page 102