[n] offensive label for
an African or someone with African antecendents;
Black is defined in the 1990 Oxford Reference
Dictionary as; ‘sinister, wicked, dismal, sullen,
frowning, portending trouble or difficulty; a Negro; of
or for Negroes; of their culture. Commonly defined as of
dark-skinned people: a member of an African ethnic group
or any other ethnic group with very dark skin, for example
Australian Aborigines’.
The word black is from the old English
blæc; related to blak ink from the old Anglo-Saxon
bookkeeping practice of writing in black ink on the credit
side of a ledger. The same root produced blac with
the common notion being "lack of hue. It’s usage
in English language as an alternative term to label Africans
as negroes came via French from the Spanish / Portuguese
word negro meaning "black", it is related
to, and derived in part from, the English word Negro
ultimately from the Latin niger, also meaning "black".
The noun in this sense is first attested
1625 (blackamoor is from 1547; see moor).
The label ‘black’ is sometimes extended to include
other non-European peoples such as those in South Asia,
but this use is generally regarded as unacceptable unless
in a political context, the preferable use being specific
names such as Indian or Malay.
Black
Dutch: zwart
French: noir (m)
German: schwarz
Italian: nero
Spanish: negro
In the Italian language, negro was used as a synonym for
"coloured" until in the 1960 it became socially
unacceptable due to its racist connotation. In the UK the
label 'coloured' was replaced with the phrase 'people
of colour' or 'black people'.
Americans of African decent have taken
the opportunity to name themselves with a term that has
no historical or cultural associations and prefer the more
formal name African American, used both as noun and adjective.
African British is also become more widely used amongst
Britons of African heritage.
[adj] pertaining to someone or thing of
African ancestry; "blacks are good at sports &
music", "black culture is now urban culture";
"the killer was a black man""
Synonyms: N***er, Negro, Coloured, Black
Other
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