Other forms: niggling, niggles
To niggle is to keep bothering somebody in a small way. A niggling doubt, niggle away at him, a niggle in the knee.
The point is smallness and persistence: a niggle is too minor to act on and too constant to ignore. In sport a niggle is a minor injury that will not clear up. The verb also means to fuss over trivial details.
1verbniggleTo keep bothering somebody in a small way.
“Something about his story kept niggling me all afternoon.”
niggle is a bothering.
First recorded in 1599, of unknown origin, probably from a Norse dialect word meaning to fuss over trifles.
Old Norse
hnøggr — stingy; miserly
Norwegian
nigla — to be stingy, to busy oneself with trifles
English, today
niggle
First attested in 1599. Origin unknown, but likely borrowed from dialectal Norwegian nigla (“to be stingy, to busy oneself with trifles”), ultimately from Old Norse hnøggr (“stingy; miserly”), related to Old English hnēaw (“stingy; niggardly”). More at niggard.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA