negroism

English

Etymology

negro +‎ -ism

Noun

negroism (plural negroisms)

1. (dated, now offensive) A behaviour, speech pattern, etc. characteristic of black people.
   • 1832, Joseph Tinker Buckingham, Edwin Buckingham, Samuel Gridley Howe, The New-England Magazine, volume 3, page 487:

     Most white children have negresses for nurses, and negro children for playmates. The first accents are caught from them, and the first efforts of speech are negroisms, the most corrupt of patoise.

   • 1935, Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men:

     When I pitched headforemost into the world I landed in the crib of negroism. From the earliest rocking of my cradle, I had known about the capers Brer Rabbit is apt to cut and what the Squinch Owl says from the house top.

Anagrams

• grinsome