wigger

See also: Wigger

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪɡɚ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪɡə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From wig ‎ -er.

Noun

wigger (plural wiggers)

1. A maker of wigs.
   • 1984, Arthur Miller, Salesman in Beijing, page 184:

     I flounder about for my diplomacy and give up; it is simply one man against four wiggers, that much is clear, and they are going to fight me down to the wire. "This girl does not need a wig at all," I am forced to say yet once more.

Etymology 2

Blend of white ‎ nigger. First use appears c. 1988. See cite below.

Noun

wigger (plural wiggers)

1. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A white person, typically young and male, considered to be overly infatuated with African-American or (UK) Afro-Caribbean culture, a cultural appropriator.
   • 1988 April 20, “How race-conscious are high school students today?”, in The Washington Post, number ?, Washington, D.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, column ?:

     I have often heard the word "wigger" used to describe a white person who supposedly acts and talks "black," while the same type of taunting is put upon a black person who supposedly acts "white."

   • 1999, Leonard Steinhorn et al., By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race, page 178:

     To some extent wiggers are simply the most visible examples of a very American brand of teenage rebellion.

   • 2000, Eminem, The Way I Am:

     And I just do not got the patience
     To deal with these cocky Caucasians
     Who think I'm some wigger who just tries to be black...

2. (by extension, imprecise) A non-black person of any race considered to be inauthentically appropriating black culture and behavior.
3. (African-American Vernacular, dated, now uncommon) A white person considered to be sincerely appreciative of black culture, as opposed to poseurs and wannabes.
   • 1994 July 7, William Upski Wimsatt, “Wigger”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     The Oprah people were on the phone with my mom. Someone had given them my name as an expert on wiggers. You know, Wiggers. White kids who identify themselves with hip-hop. I was an expert on that.

Alternative forms

• wigga, whigger, whigga

Hypernyms

• (slur): race traitor

Related terms

• white nigger
• witch, wapanese, weeaboo

Translations

White person pretending to be black

• Russian: виггер (ru) m (vigger)

References

• Roediger, David. "What to Make of Wiggers: A Work in Progress", Generations of Youth, 1998, pp. 358–366.
• “wigger, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.