[stratomorph]

The resemblance is entirely coincidental. The two words have unrelated etymologies. We might as well advise people to avoid words like "luck" and "truck," which are not technically profane, but obviously sound very close to a very bad word.

[tjr]

"Niggardly" is a rather uncommonly used word, though. One of our city officials used "niggardly" in a public event a few months ago, and a bunch of people got in an uproar. Were those people ignorant about this word? Yes. Would it have been better for the city official to have avoided it? I think so. Not every instance of language use is necessarily an opportune moment to enhance the vocabulary of others.

That said, I would like to think that on this particular forum such concerns ought to be minimal, at best.