black
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- Black (race-related)
PronunciationEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”) (compare Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”)[1], Old High German blah (“black”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”) (compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”)). More at bleach.
AdjectiveEdit
black (comparative blacker, superlative blackest)
- (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
- (of a place, etc) Without light.
- (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
- 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times[3]:
- The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.
- (chiefly historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups which have dark pigmentation of the skin.
- black drinking fountain; black hospital
- (card games, of a card) Of the spades or clubs suits. Compare red (“of the hearts or diamonds suit”)
- I was dealt two red queens, and he got one of the black queens.
- Bad; evil; ill-omened.
- 1655, Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168.
- ...what a black day would that be, when the Ordinances of Jesus Christ should as it were be excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
- Nor were there wanting some, who, after the departure of Jenny, insinuated that she was spirited away with a design too black to be mentioned, and who gave frequent hints that a legal inquiry ought to be made into the whole matter, and that some people should be forced to produce the girl.
- 1655, Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168.
- Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
- He shot her a black look.
- (of objects, markets, etc) Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
- 1866, The Contemporary Review, London: A. Strahan, page 338.
- Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.
- 1866, The Contemporary Review, London: A. Strahan, page 338.
- (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
- (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.
- Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
- (board games, chess) Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess the set used by the player who moves second) (often regardless of the pieces' actual colour).
- (typography) Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color. Compare white (“said of a character or symbol outline, not filled with color”).
- Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX
- (politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
- After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.
- Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.
- 5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.
- black operations/black ops, black room, black site
- Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:
- Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.
- 2014, J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (→ISBN), page 168:
- But a hel-rúne was one who knew secret black knowledge – and the association of hell with the dead shows that the gloss in O.H.G. 'necromancia' is very close.
- (Ireland, now derogatory) Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic
- Originally "the Black North" meant west Ulster,[2] then Protestant east Ulster.[3] Compare also blackmouth ["Presbyterian"][4] and the Royal Black Institution.
- 1914 May 27, "Review of The North Afire by W. Douglas Newton", The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume 86, page t:
- Now April's brother, once also holding a commission in that regiment, was an Ulster Volunteer, her father a staunch, black Protestant, her family tremulously "loyal" to the country whose Parliament was turning them out of its councils.
- 1985 April, J. A. Weaver, "John Henry Biggart 1905-1979 — A portrait in respect and affection", Ulster Medical Journal, volume 54, number 1, page 1:
- He [Sir John Henry Biggart] was personally amused at having once been called "a black bastard".
- 2007 September 6, Fintan O'Toole, "Diary", London Review of Books volume 29, number 17, page 35:
- He had been playing Gaelic football for Lisnaskea Emmets, his local team in County Fermanagh, against a team from nearby Brookeborough, when someone from the opposing team called him a ‘black cunt’. ‘Black’, in this case, was a reference not to the colour of his skin but to his religion. It is short for ‘Black Protestant’, a long-standing term of sectarian abuse.
- Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc) that is dark (or black); in taxonomy, especially: dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.
- black birch, black locust, black rhino
- the black knight, black bile
- Foul; dirty.
Usage notesEdit
- Some style guides recommend capitalizing Black in reference to the racial group,[5][6] while others advise using lowercase (black);[7] lowercase is more common.[8]
SynonymsEdit
- (dark and colourless): dark; swart
- (without light): dark, gloomy, pitch-black
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
(taxonomy: having dark features):
- black abalone
- black alder (Alnus glutinosa)
- black and gold garden spider
- black and white warbler
- Black Angus
- black antshrike
- black-arched moth
- black ash
- black-backed antshrike
- black-backed jackal
- black bamboo
- black bass
- black bean
- black bean aphid
- black bear (Ursus spp.)
- black beetle
- black-bellied plover
- black-bellied sandgrouse
- black-bibbed tit
- black-billed capercaillie
- black-billed magpie
- black bread mold (Rhizopus stolonifer)
- black bryony
- blackbuck
- blackbutt (Eucalyptus spp,)
- black caiman
- black canker
- black-capped chickadee
- black-capped tinamou
- black caraway
- black cardamom
- black carp
- black carpet beetle
- black chanterelle
- black cherry (Prunus serotina)
- black chokeberry
- black cock
- black cockatoo
- black cohosh (Actaea racemosa)
- black coral
- black-crested antshrike
- black-crested titmouse
- black-crowned night heron
- black cuckooshrike
- black cumin
- black currant (Ribes nigrum)
- black currawong
- black durgon
- black elder (Sambucus nigra)
- black-eyed bean (Vigna unguiculata)
- black-eyed pea (Vigna unguiculata)
- black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- black-faced ibis
- black finger crab
- black-footed cat
- black-footed rock wallaby
- black francolin
- black garden ant
- black goby
- black goose
- black gram
- blackgrass
- black grouse
- black guillemot
- black gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
- black hairstreak
- black-handed gibbon
- black haw
- black-headed duck
- black-headed gull
- black-headed parrot
- black hellebore
- black-hooded antshrike
- black house spider
- black howler
- black ibis
- black kite
- black-legged kittiwake
- black locust
- black mamba
- black mangrove
- black maple
- black moss
- black moth
- black mudalia
- black mudfish
- black mulberry
- black mustard (Brassica nigra)
- black-necked grebe
- black-necked screamer
- black-necked swan
- black nightshade (Solanum nigrum etc.)
- black oak
- black oat
- black palmer
- black partridge
- black pepper (Piper nigrum)
- black piedra
- black pine
- blackpoll (Dendroica striata)
- black prince
- black radish
- black raspberry (Rubus spp.)
- black rat
- black redstart
- black rhinoceros
- black rice
- black rust
- black sage
- black salmon
- black salsify
- black scabbardfish
- black scoter
- black Sigatoka
- black skimmer (Rynchops niger)
- black slug
- blacksmelt
- black snake
- black snakeroot
- black speargrass
- blackstart
- black stork (Ciconia nigra)
- black-striped wallaby
- black swallower
- black swallow-wort
- black swan
- black-tailed godwit
- black-tailed jackrabbit
- black-tailed trainbearer
- black teal
- black tern
- blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
- black-throat
- black-throated antshrike
- black-throated diver
- black-throated loon
- black tinamou
- black toad
- black tooth
- black truffle
- black walnut (Juglans nigra)
- black whale
- black willow
- black-winged kite
- black-winged pratincole
- blackwit
- blackworm
- great black-backed gull
- lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus)
(other senses):
- All Blacks
- antiblack
- back carbon
- black ace
- Blackacre
- black advance
- black Africa
- black amber
- black and blue
- Black and Tan
- black-and-white, black and white
- Blackanese
- black antimony
- Black Army
- black art
- black as a dog's guts
- black as coal
- black as Newgate's knocker
- black as night
- black as the ace of spades
- black as thunder
- black aurora
- black babies
- blackback
- black bag
- blackball
- blackband
- black band disease
- Blackbeard
- black beer
- black belt
- black bile
- black bitch
- black bloc
- blackboard
- blackbody
- Black Book
- black bottom
- black bottom pie
- black box
- black-box testing
- black box warning
- blackboy
- black brane
- black bread
- black broth
- black bun
- black cab
- black cake
- black cancer
- blackcap
- black card
- black cat
- Black Cat
- black cattle
- black chalk
- black chamber
- blackchin
- black clergy
- blackcoat
- black coffee
- black comedy
- black copper
- Black Country
- black cow
- blackdamp
- blackdar
- Black Death
- black diamond
- black dog, black dog syndrome
- black draught
- black drink
- black drop
- black drop effect
- black dwarf
- black earth
- black economy
- black eye
- black-eyed
- blackface
- blackfaced
- black fax
- blackfellow, blackfella
- black fever
- blackfish
- black flag
- black flux
- blackfly
- blackfold
- Black Forest
- Black Forest cake
- Black Forest gateau
- black friar
- Black Friday
- black frost
- black game
- blackgin
- black gold
- blackguard
- black-haired
- Black Hand
- black hat
- blackhead
- blackheart
- black-hearted
- black henna
- black hog
- black hole
- black-house
- black humor, black humour
- black ice
- blackify
- black information
- black in the face
- Black Irish
- blackish
- Black Isle
- blackism
- blackity-black
- black ivory
- blackjack
- black jail
- black jaundice
- black knight
- Black Lady
- black latten
- Black Law
- black lead
- blackleg
- Black Legend
- black letter
- black light
- blackline
- blacklip
- black liquor
- blacklist
- black lung
- blackly
- black magic
- blackmail
- black man
- black manganese
- Black Maria
- black mark
- black market
- Black Mass
- black mead
- black measles
- black metal
- Black Monday
- black money
- Black Monk
- blackmouth
- black-mouthed
- black mud
- black noise
- black note
- black olive
- black-on-black
- black operation, black op
- blackophilia
- Blackophobe
- Blackophobia
- Blackophobic
- black out
- blackout
- black oven
- black over Bill's mother's
- Black Panther
- black people's time
- Black Peter
- black phosphorus
- black pill
- Black Plague
- black plate
- Black Pope
- black powder
- black power
- black propaganda
- black pudding
- black quarter
- black queen cell virus
- black racer
- black radio
- black rain
- black rent
- black rider
- Black Rock
- Black Rod
- black room
- blackroot
- black rot
- Black Russia
- black salts
- black salve
- black sanctus
- Black Sea
- blackseed
- black shale
- black sheep
- blackshirt
- black-sick
- black silver
- blackskin
- blacksmith
- black smoker
- blacksnake
- black soup
- blackspeak
- blacksplain
- black spot
- black start
- blackstrap
- blackstream
- black stuff
- black stump
- black swan
- blacktag
- blacktail
- black tar
- black tea
- blackthorn
- black thumb
- Black Thursday
- black tie
- black tin
- blacktip
- blacktivist
- blacktop
- black top-hat transform
- Blacktown
- blacktress
- black triangle
- Black Tuesday
- black up
- black urine disease
- black velvet
- Black Virgin
- black vomit
- black vulture
- blackware
- blackwash
- blackwater
- black wedding
- black widow
- black witch
- blackwood
- black woodpecker
- blackwork
- blacky, blackie, blackey
- Blasian
- blue-black
- coal black
- code black
- everblack
- have the black ox tread on one's foot
- in someone's black books
- interblack
- jet black, jet-black
- Large Black
- little black book
- little black dress
- monoblack
- nonblack
- normally black
- not as black as one is painted
- once you go black, you never go back
- Penny Black
- pitch-black
- postblack
- pot calling the kettle black
- pro-black
- quasiblack
- slate black
- unblack
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
See black/translations § Adjective.
NounEdit
black (countable and uncountable, plural blacks)
- (countable and uncountable) The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
- black:
- c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.
- (countable and uncountable) A black dye or pigment.
- (countable) A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
- (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, "Of Death", Essays:
- Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, "Of Death", Essays:
- (sometimes capitalised, countable) A person of African, Aborigine, or Maori descent; a dark-skinned person.
- 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash[4]:
- But presently the negro seized the Hindoo by the throat; the Hindoo just pricked him in the arm with his knife, and the next moment his own head was driven against the side of the cabin with a stunning crack […] The cabin was now full, and Sharpe was for putting both the blacks in irons.
- 2004, Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising, page 108:
- Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks, accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters.
- (informal) Blackness, the condition of having dark skin.
- (billiards, snooker, pool, countable) The black ball.
- (baseball, countable) The edge of home plate.
- (Britain, countable) A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
- (informal, countable) Blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
- (in chess and similar games, countable) The person playing with the black set of pieces.
- At this point black makes a disastrous move.
- (countable) Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
- 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises
- the black or sight of the eye
- 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises
- (obsolete, countable) A stain; a spot.
- 1619, William Rowley, All's Lost by Lust
- defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust
- 1619, William Rowley, All's Lost by Lust
- A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
- (US, slang) Marijuana.
SynonymsEdit
- (colour or absence of light):
- (person):
- (standard) African American (in the US), Afro-American (in the US), person of African descent
- (usually derogatory or historical): Negro, colored
- (derogatory): coon, darkie or darky, nigger
AntonymsEdit
- (colour, dye, pen): white
Derived termsEdit
- acetylene black
- African black
- Berlin black
- Black Act
- black and tan
- black and white
- black don't crack
- blackless
- Blackophobia
- blue-black
- boneblack
- Brunswick black
- carbon black
- coal black
- cut to black
- eye black
- fade to black
- Frankfort black
- ivory black
- jet black, jet-black
- lampblack
- long black
- man in black, Man in Black
- Men in Black
- mineral black
- mulga black
- palladium black
- platinum black
- raisin black
- short black
- slate black
- smoke black
- smoky black
- Spanish black
- the new black
- toothblack
- two seconds to black
TranslationsEdit
See black/translations § Noun.
VerbEdit
black (third-person singular simple present blacks, present participle blacking, simple past and past participle blacked)
- (transitive) To make black; to blacken.
- 1859, Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks [5]
- "I don't want to fight; but you are a mean, dirty blackguard, or you wouldn't have treated a girl like that," replied Tommy, standing as stiff as a stake before the bully.
- "Say that again, and I'll black your eye for you."
- 1911, Edna Ferber, Buttered Side Down [6]
- Ted, you can black your face, and dye your hair, and squint, and some fine day, sooner or later, somebody'll come along and blab the whole thing.
- 1922, John Galsworthy, A Family Man: In Three Acts [7]
- I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye.
- 1859, Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks [5]
- (transitive) To apply blacking to (something).
- 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin [8]
- […] he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy boots).
- 1861, George William Curtis, Trumps: A Novel [9]
- But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?"
- 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson [10]
- Loving you, I could conceive no life sweeter than hers — to be always near you; to black your boots, carry up your coals, scrub your doorstep; always to be working for you, hard and humbly and without thanks.
- 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin [8]
- (Britain, transitive) To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
- 2003, Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England (page 175)
- The plants were blacked by the Transport and General Workers' Union and a consumer boycott was organised; both activities contributed to what the union saw as a victory.
- 2003, Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England (page 175)
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit
Colors in English · colors, colours (layout · text) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
white | gray, grey | black | ||
red; crimson | orange; brown | yellow; cream | ||
lime | green | mint | ||
cyan; teal | azure, sky blue | blue | ||
violet; indigo | magenta; purple | pink |
Further readingEdit
- black on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Black on Wikisource.Wikisource
ReferencesEdit
- black at OneLook Dictionary Search
- black in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
- black in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- ^ https://www.koeblergerhard.de/mnd/mnd_b.html
- ^
- 1812, Edward Wakefield, An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political Vol. 2 p. 737 "There is a district, comprehending Donegal, the interior of the county of Derry, and the western side of Tyrone, which is emphatically called by the people "the Black North," an expression not meant, as I conceive, to mark its greater exposure to the westerly winds, but rather its dreary aspect."
- ^ 1841 March 20 "Intelligence; Catholicity in Ulster" Catholic Herald (Bengal) Vol. 2 No. 1 p. 27 'Even in the "black North"—in " Protestant Ulster"—Catholicity is progessing at a rate that must strike terror into its enemies, and impart pride and hope to the professors of the faith of our sainted forefathers.'
1886 Thomas Power O'Connor, The Parnell Movement: With a Sketch of Irish Parties from 1843 p. 520 "To the southern Nationalist the north was chiefly known as the home of the most rabid religious and political intolerance perhaps in the whole Christian world; it was designated by the comprehensive title of the 'Black North.'" - ^ Baraniuk, Carol (2015). James Orr, Poet and Irish Radical. Routledge. p. 128. →ISBN; Barkley, John Monteith (1959) A Short History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland p.36
- ^ “AP changes writing style to capitalize ″b″ in Black”, in The Associated Press[1], 2020-06-20
- ^ Nancy Coleman (2020-07-05) , “Why We’re Capitalizing Black”, in New York Times[2]
- ^ Columbia Journalism Review, referring also to the Chicago Manual of Style
- ^ Ngrams
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
black (plural blacks)
NounEdit
black m or f (plural blacks)
- black person
- Synonym: noir
- 2015, Ilham Maad, Noir, pas black[11]:
- C’est qu’en France, les blancs n’existent pas et par contre la façon de parler des nonblancs existe et évolue avec le temps. Parce qu’effectivement, d’abord on était sur des termes purement et simplement racistes avec « bamboula, negro, nègre, bicot, bougnoule » et puis après ça a évolué et on est arrivé à « black, beur »… Donc je sais pas quand est-ce que ça a commencé exactement, moi je marque ça aux années 80, le hip hop, voilà, la black music…
- In France, there are no Whites, but names for non-Whites are constantly evolving. First we had terms that were purely and simply racist, like jigaboo, negro, nigger, coon, sambo... That evolved until we got to Black, Brownie... I'm not sure when that came in, but I guess it was the 1980s, with hip-hop and "Black music."
Middle EnglishEdit
AdjectiveEdit
black
- Alternative form of blak