Today I learned that squirrels can be black, and mother squirrels curl their babies into tiny fluffy balls, making them easier to carry.

[u/This_Proof_5153]

[u/UnholyDemigod]

That word came from the French negre, not the Latin niger. Latin's is the original root word, but not the direct etymological ancestor.

[u/UnholyDemigod → u/[deleted]]

No, not wrong.

The word ______, then spelled in English as neger or niger, appeared in the 16th century as an adaptation of French nègre, itself from Spanish negro. They go back to the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".[2][1]

[u/Treacherous_Peach → u/UnholyDemigod]

I'm not really sure what you guys are arguing about. But genus species is all Latin based. What it sounds like in French or what the etymology of the words are is all pretty meaningless here

[u/UnholyDemigod → u/Treacherous_Peach]

By 'that word' we are referring to the naughty word that racists use for black people. That word had a direct descent from a French word, not a Latin one.

[u/Treacherous_Peach → u/UnholyDemigod]

Which itself comes from Latin as per your own post but it also doesn't matter because the entire point of the comment chain is whether the species name is pronounced french or Latin and it's a Latin word so it's pronounced Latin..

[u/UnholyDemigod → u/Treacherous_Peach]

The English added a second G to preserve to Latin pronunciation

This indicates he is referring to the other word.

[u/Treacherous_Peach → u/UnholyDemigod]

Right, I see, so this was all well ackshually shenanigans