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Uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European*negʷ-(“bare, naked”) if this root is assumed also to be the source of *nókʷts(“night”) (Latin nox), thus “black” would attest the intermediate meaning between “bare” and “night”. Possibly cognate with Umbrianniru(“(possibly) dark, black”), though this form (thought to be accusative singular) is not mentioned in de Vaan.
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
^ Watkins, Calvert (2000) The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd edition, Houghton Mifflin Co.
^ Planta, Robert (2011) Grammatik der Oskisch-Umbrischen Dialekts (in German)
Further reading
“niger”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“niger”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
niger in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“niger”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“niger”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray