Niggard (n)

Niggard - a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend

Woah! Definitely never knew this word before I read about it in my speech book. My book was talking about how a newly appointed Washington D.C. rep used this word (niggardly) to describe an approach to budgeting. All sorts of racial accusations ensued. As it turns out, the word is from Scandanavian descent and has no relationship to the other "n" word as it might so apparently seem!

Ex: When asked to donate funds to the Katrina relief efforts, the niggardly old woman replied, "I'd rather go shopping!"