acceptable proper noun?

[biggerbirdbrain]

Oh great pup-wordmeister:

How is it that the game will accept the word "niger" (a river in Africa) when I cannot find any other meaning for it?

Awaiting your wisdom yet again.

B-B-B

[Alan W]

There seem to be a couple of usages (obscure ones, to be sure) where the word "niger" is used as a common word and sometimes written with a lower case "n".

Guizotia abyssinica or noog (Ethio-Semitic ኑግ nūg) is an erect, strout, branched annual herb, grown for its edible oil and seed, originated in the Ethiopian highlands. Common names include niger, niger seed, and niger pea.

The seed is often sold as bird seed as it is a favourite of finches, especially Goldfinch and Greenfinch.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_seed

I would have thought a bird-brain would know about that one!

...the first thirty were bound in full niger with a short supplement...

- from a description of a book at http://www.ilab.org/db/book1563_003386.html

In this case, it seems there is a type of leather, used for book-binding, known usually as "niger goatskin" or "niger morocco", but sometimes, as in the quote, simply as "niger". In this usage, the word seems to be mostly written with a capital "N", but sometimes in lower case.

[biggerbirdbrain]

Actually, you're right. B-B-B does have a cockatiel, but I guess I didn't read the label on his feed closely enuf, and he doesn't have a sufficient vocabulary to tell me.
Ciao.