The Collaborative International Dictionary
Niggerhead \Nig"ger*head`\, n. A strong black chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form; negro head. [archaic]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
from nigger + head. A term used formerly in U.S. of various things, such as "cheap tobacco" (1843), "protruding root mass in a swamp" (1859), a type of cactus (1877), and the black-eyed susan (1893). Variant negro-head attested from 1781.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context nautical dated now offensive English) A bollard made from an old cannon. 2 (context geology archaic colloquial now offensive English) A geode. 3 (context now offensive English) A coneflower. 4 (context now offensive English) An isolated part of a coral reef. 5 (context US Alaska dated now offensive English) A tussock (clump of plant material), found on tundra. 6 (cx archaic English) A strong black variety of chewing tobacco, usually in twisted plug form.
Wikipedia
__NOTOC__ In several English-speaking countries, niggerhead or nigger head is a former name for several things thought to resemble a black person's head (cf. " nigger").
The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including nautical bollards and consumer products including soap, chewing tobacco, stove polish, canned oysters and shrimp, golf tees, and toy cap pistols, among others. It was often used for geographic features such as hills and rocks and geological objects such as geodes. The term appears in several US patents for mechanical devices prior to about 1950.
In 1955, the Aughinbaugh Canning Company of Mississippi renamed its "Nigger Head Brand" oysters to " Negro Head Brand" following pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. More than a hundred "Niggerheads", and other place names now considered racially offensive, were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.
Languages other than English have used similar terms to describe chocolate-coated marshmallow treats.
Niggerhead or nigger head is a word once used for various objects thought to resemble a black person's (historically nigger's) head. The word is now considered extremely offensive, and alternatives are used. It may also refer to:
Plants- Carex secta, a tussock grass in New Zealand
- Echinocactus polycephalus, the niggerhead cactus, which is native to California and Arizona
- Enneapogon nigricans, niggerhead grass, native to Australia
- "Kansas niggerhead" or "wild niggerhead", colloquial names for Echinacea, or coneflower
- Rudbeckia hirta, a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae
- The niggerhead termite, Nasutitermes graveolus, native to Australia
- Nigger Head, an island in North Queensland, Australia
- A large isolated part of a coral reef (Australian, from nautical term)
Usage examples of "niggerhead".
Yamaha 350 off the trailer, packed up, went jouncing across niggerhead tundra and then down the washes and into willow thickets, branches slapping the machine.
Sometimes the hourglass waist of a niggerhead gave him shelter and he rested for a few moments knowing that the small froth of his air-bubbles would be hidden by the jagged knob protruding above the surface.
When he got through and rested on a round lump of brain-coral under the shelter of a last niggerhead, he was glad that nothing but a hundred yards of grey-white water lay in front of him.
Bond guessed that the paravane had fouled a niggerhead or a piece of surface coral.
At the opening through the reef there was a swirl and suck of conflicting currents and they were in amongst the jagged niggerheads and coral trees, bared like fangs by the swell.