Is there anything wrong with the word “denigrate”?

"Nigger" is pronounced /ˈnigər/ and "denigrate" is pronounced /ˈdeniˌgrāt/. The /nigər/ part is completely missing and the accent isn't in a similar place.

For comparison, "niggardly" is pronounced /ˈnigərdlē/ which does have /nigər/ and the accent is in the same place. So no, denigrate doesn't sound enough like nigger to matter.

Yes, it's certainly possible for whole classes of words to become taboo just because of sound-association. It's going on right now, for better or worse.

However, I doubt that denigrate will fall victim to this. In the first place, it doesn't sound very much like nigger or any derivative. Furthermore, you have to be fairly conversant in Latin to realize that the -nigr- part of denigrate has anything to do with "black", which prevents the association between the words from becoming strong or widespread enough to incur the taboo.

I've never made that connection. Is it racially offensive to say that someone is "blacklisted" or that he has done something to "blacken his name"? Maybe go ahead and use it?

• I don't think 'denigrate' is currently realized as possibly taboo because of the etymology or the sound.

• pointing out that connection, I'm almost inclined now to not use the word 'denigrate', but a close phonology is more likely to trigger taboo avoidance.

• I don't know about whole -families- of words, but certainly a single morpheme might be recognizable and so any word with it might share the taboo properties.

• How do you pronounce the seventh planet from the sun? It's at least humorous to every 10 year-old. People are changing the pronunciation because of it.

• There's a country in Africa whose pronunciation hasn't changed even though it is spelled very closely to the n-word.

• Associations are whatever people make and you can't control how other people make their associations. Whether there is a logical association that is hard to hear but intellectually discussed, or an unexpected phonetic change that makes a word sound like a taboo word, it doesn't matter. If some people don't like it then, well, they don't like it. Sometimes it is because of semi-literacy or lack of common culture, but it can also be pretty legitimate. Some things aren't taboo (or otherwise special) until it's about you.