By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 28, 1999; Page A01 Niggardly. Say it fast. Like many words, it means different things to different people. Especially when said out loud.
To those aware of its ancient origin, niggardly means stingy and has absolutely no documentable racial overtones.
To those who don't know the word, niggardly conjures dark images of mean-spiritedness and racism.
To David Howard, who resigned Monday as the head of the District's Office of Public Advocate, niggardly could mean an abrupt end to a public service career.
There may be more to Howard's resignation than meets the eye, or the ear. The new mayor, Anthony A. Williams, who's under fire from some quarters for "not being black enough," said yesterday that he would reevaluate the situation. But if one believes Howard's public statement, that he used the word innocently and in its correct context and that he "would never think of making a racist remark," then the fact that he lost his job over a misheard word is truly remarkable.
The episode began, Howard said, after a Jan. 15 meeting with the mayor, when he reported to aides Marshall Brown and John Fanning that there would not be much money available for the constituent services office.
Howard said: "I will have to be niggardly with this fund because it's not going to be a lot of money."
Both Brown, a black veteran government worker, and Fanning, who is white and also has worked for District government, looked stunned at Howard's words. Howard, who is white, said he immediately knew that the two men were unfamiliar with the word, which he learned while studying for his SAT as a high school junior. Brown stormed out of the office as Howard tried to explain and offer an apology. Two days later, Brown called Howard at home and asked him to apologize, but Howard said "he didn't want to hear what I had to say" about the word.
In Howard's next conversation with Brown after the two men returned to work, he asked Brown not to spread any rumors "because he knew what was actually said." Brown said he hadn't spread any rumors.
But then Howard started getting calls from people in the community. The callers said they had heard he "lost it" because of a barrage of complaints that came into his office on the day of the ice storm. And that he was supposed to have said "I'm tired of all these N-words calling me with their problems."
Howard said he would never use such a "nasty" word. Furthermore, he didn't recall his office getting many calls about the ice storm.
All over Washington yesterday, folks were debating whether Howard should have resigned. People pointed out other common words whose contemporary meanings are supercharged. "A chink in the armor," said one Asian American, can be taken more than one way. So, he said, can "a nip in the air."
And there are others, like "niggling," that could also be confusing.
Larry Webster, owner of the Lemon Bowl Deli at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Irving Street NW, understood Brown and Fanning's concern.
"We call each other . . . this and . . . that," said Webster yesterday, using the word he heard in "niggardly." He looked up from preparing rotisserie chicken sandwiches for two young black customers.
"But you come in here talking like that," he said, pointing to a white reporter, "and we'll kick your . . . ."
Webster, 57, had heard about Howard's resignation and had read the story in the newspaper. But the word, he said, just sounds bad. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, but I can see where it was highly offensive. Maybe he should have used another word."
He added: "In these days and times, everybody has thin skins. And bosses have to be sensitive."
Kay T. Payne, who teaches communications at Howard University, observed: "On the one hand, I know the word 'niggardly' to be a legitimate word that has no racial overtones. The context is extremely important. If it were used half-jokingly, in a humorous situation, it has a different meaning. The person knows they are saying something that could have racial overtones."
Louisa Gaiter, a 19-year-old biology student at Howard, agreed with Webster. "When you are in a higher position," she said on her way across the sunny campus, "you have to watch what you say."
Gaiter wasn't really sure what the word meant, but she understood how someone would be offended by any word with that awful sound in it.
Accounting student Anthony Murray, 18, adjusted his backpack and said that the incident had been the focal point of his morning English class. "Niggardly," he said, is a word he would feel comfortable using or hearing. "It's a good word to use in an English paper."
Cabdriver James D. McLaughlin, who is black, looked up the word years ago, so he knew what it meant. He imagined that whoever had been offended by Howard's language was not familiar with the word's meaning. Besides, he said, he believes in the adage: It's not what someone calls you; it's what you answer to.
Of "niggardly," Mike Agnes, editor in chief of Webster's New World Dictionary, said, "I would not hesitate to use it, but I'm in an office with 15 other people working on a dictionary." He does, however, avoid using words -- like "forte" -- that might confuse his listener. "Everybody wants to be understood whether he be a speaker or a writer."
And what if we lose this word for all time because of the confluence of political correctness and miscomprehension? "We lose words every day," Agnes said. "Language is always in process, always in flux, always changing, particularly from generation to generation. We lose words, we lose dialects, we lose entire languages."
He added, "Because of its multiplicity of influences, its wealth of synonyms and its accumulated literature, people hold up the English language as one of the great achievements of civilization, of mankind."
"Niggardly" and the noun "niggard" have been traced to the 1300s and the words nig and nigon, meaning miser, in Middle English. It may have earlier roots in older languages.
There have been other incidents involving this word. A food reviewer for the Dallas Morning News, for example, caused a similar controversy last year by reporting that a certain restaurant had bland food because of "a niggardly hand with seasonings." The chef, as it turned out, was black. The paper ran a clarification immediately, apologizing to any readers who misunderstood the word. Because of the incident, however, the newspaper has decided to avoid using the word, said Sue Smith, an editor.
The word also shows up occasionally in Supreme Court decisions. "It is time we stopped being niggardly in construing civil rights legislation," wrote Justice William O. Douglas in a 1970 opinion.
Sebastian Sosa, 22, said that he associated the word "niggardly" with that other word. Standing in the Museum of American History at an exhibit that chronicles the difficult migration of African Americans from the South to the North, Sosa said, "I think I understand why the people were offended, because of what you see on the walls here today."
Sosa and Angela DeSanctis, 21, who is white, were visiting Washington from Evangel University in Springfield, Mo. "If I heard it, not knowing what the word meant, I would say 'Whooo!' " DeSanctis said. "You always have to be careful what you say."
Museum volunteer Anita Malone, 68, who is also white, said she tries to avoid terms that might be misunderstood, like "black thumb" for someone who kills everything in the garden. She says "purple thumb" instead.
Poet E. Ethelbert Miller, who directs Howard's African American Resource Center, said, "I think that as a society we have to be a little more mature about our use of language. If a person uses a word and apologizes for it, I don't think that person should be chased out of office."
"The city," he said, "has other problems besides how you spell a word or how you pronounce it."
Staff writers Yolanda Woodlee and Vanessa Williams and researcher Margot Williams contributed to this report.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMSxedKrrWikn5iurXvLqKWgrJWnunDDyKWjopmdqHy4u9GdqmlpYm2GenrHraQ%3D