Niggardly

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈnɪɡədli/
• US IPA: /ˈnɪɡɚdli/

Origin

From niggard + -ly.

Full definition of niggardly

Adjective

1. (now rare) Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.
• Bishop HallWhere the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly.
• 1919, William Somerset Maugham, ,They were not niggardly, these tramps, and he who had money did not hesitate to share it among the rest.
• 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1998 edition), ISBN 9780395925003, p. 186:This manifests itself in an implacable tendency to provide an opulent supply of some things and a niggardly yield of others.

Synonyms

• miserly, stingy.

Adverb

1. (now rare) In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.
• 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York 2001, p. 105:because many families are compelled to live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little ....

Usage notes

This term may cause offence as it is easily misinterpreted to be an adverbial form of the racial epithet nigger.

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_02_02_newyorktimes.html The two words are etymologically unrelated.