neekeri

Finnish

Finnish Wikipedia has an article on:

neekeri

Wikipedia ^fi

Etymology

Until the second half of the 19th century, this was a direct loan of Swedish neger without adaptation to Finnish phonology, at least in writing, which rarely happens in Finnish. Nevertheless, the form neekeri was no doubt almost immediately used in speaking, long before it was used in writing since Finnish seldom differentiates between voiced and unvoiced plosives and since an /i/ is usually suffixed to foreign words ending in a consonant. The Swedish word came from French nègre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈneːkeri/,
• Rhymes: -eːkeri
• Syllabification^(key): nee‧ke‧ri

Noun

neekeri

1. (offensive, ethnic slur) nigger (person with dark brown skin)
2. (dated, politically incorrect) negro (person of African descent)
3. (dated) journalist
4. (originally humorous, now politically incorrect) a person who performs hard or menial work

   Kukahan neekeri me saadaan tekemään se?

   Who's the negro you think we'll get to do it?

Usage notes

• Although originally non-pejorative, use of this term is now chiefly interpreted as offensive.

Declension

Synonyms

• musta (“black”)
• mustaihoinen, tummaihoinen (“dark-skinned”)
• nekru (offensive)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “neekeri”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03