Kaffir

Origin of: Kaffir

Kaffir

So offensive is this word in English-speaking Africa that it is now classified as the k word and in this sense is similar to nigger. Its etymology, however, unlike nigger, is non-racial as it derives from the Arabic kafir, which means unbeliever. Thus, the Crusaders in The Middle Ages would also have been called kafirs. The word kaffir, as we now know it, entered the English language in the late 18th/early 19th century.