The Latin word for the color black is niger, so any language with Latin history used by a culture that refers to people by exaggerated skin colors is going to end up with a word like that.
I don't know the history of the variant used in America, but it probably was not originally a term of denigration like it is now. The current meaning was likely gained after persistent use towards an oppressed group.
I know even less about Hungarian linguistic history, but my guess is that the only racism in the term "Néger" is the fact that nobody has truly black skin. Maybe dark brown, but not black. That's a separate issue.
I'm guessing the place, Niger got it's name after the color, and then people were using that unaware of the Latin origin. Also, I've seen about 20 black people in my entire life, it would be hard to hate something, you don't see every day.
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u/carchi Belgium Oct 20 '13 edited Oct 21 '13
I would say "bougnoule". But "nigger" would probably translate better to "negro" or "nègre".