A stingy or ungenerous person; one who is or is behaving
niggardly. Despite popular belief, the word is actually historically considered highly offensive. Should not be confused with the word nigger, which is also highly offensive, but in a different way. In everyday speech, the two words sound nearly identical, so it's a good
rule of thumb to save the word for print. It's considered pretty archaic anyway, so it's probably not a good idea to use it in any context unless you want to offend someone who has a less developed vocabulary.
See niggardly,
niggardliness.
Person With a Large Vocabulary: Why won't you
give me a dollar? You're such a
niggard.
Person With a Small Vocabulary: WHAT'D YOU JUST CALL ME?!
Person With a Large Vocabulary: I called you a niggard. You know:
stingy, not generous, generally not the kind of person you'd want to hang out with.
Person With a Small Vocabulary: Now you're just being racist!