chigger

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪɡɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)

From chigoe, likely from a Cariban language term such as Kari'na siko (“chigoe”) (early recorded variant chico), from Proto-Cariban *tikô.

chigger (plural chiggers)

1. A chigoe (Tunga penetrans), a kind of flea found in tropical climates.
2. A harvest mite (Trombiculidae spp.), a very small, red mite endemic to the Midwestern and Southeastern US, the infestation of which causes intense itching.
   • 2024 July 25, Carly Stern, “It’s Chigger Season. Here’s What to Know About the Pests.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Dr. Lareau, an emergency medicine physician at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital in Virginia, had seen these marks once or twice before on patients. She knew what had caused them. They were from chiggers, a species of tiny, reddish-brown mites able to leave bites that remain itchy for days or weeks.

• (mite): harvest mite

• chigger weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Blend of chink +‎ nigger

chigger (plural chiggers)

1. (US, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) An East Asian person who behaves in ways similar to a stereotypical urban African American.
   • 2007, James Boice, MVP: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 37:

     —He's not black, Stacia Jacobs who smelled like pee said. — He's yellow and black. He's a chigger. Do you know what a chigger is? It's a chink and a nigger.

• chigga