Definition of 'black' from the Oxford English Dictionary | The definitive record of the English language
black, adj. and n. Pronunciation: Brit. /blak/ , U.S. /blæk/
Forms: α. OE blacc- (Northumbrian, inflected form), OE blaec (rare), OE blæc, OE bleac (rare), OE blec, OE (rare) ME–15 blak, OE–eME blac- (inflected form), OE (rare)–ME blac, eME blache, eME blæcc- (inflected form), MEblakke, ME–16 blacke, ME– black, 18 bhlock (Irish English (Wexford)); Sc. pre-17 blac, pre-17 blak, pre-17 17– black.
β. ME blaak, ME blaake, ME blaike, ME–16 blake; Sc. pre-17 blaik, pre-17 blake.
γ. Sc. pre-17 blauk (perh. transmission error).
Etymology: Cognate with Middle Dutch blac ink, Old Saxon blac ink (Middle Low German blak ink, black dye, black colour), Old High German blah- (only in blah-faro of the colour of ink, blah-māl niello decoration (Middle High German blach-māl ), blah-mālōn to decorate with niello); further etymology uncertain; on formal grounds the word could be from a base related to the Germanic bases of blank adj. and the various forms discussed at blik v., but since this would give an expected meaning ‘shining, white’ there is an obvious semantic difficulty; many have sought to resolve this by hypothesizing that the word meaning ‘black’ originated as a past participle (with the meaning ‘burnt, blackened’) of a verb meaning ‘to burn (brightly)’ derived from this base; this verb may perhaps be reflected by Middle Dutch blaken (Dutch blaken) to flame, to burn.Forms in North Germanic languages.
Old Icelandic blakkr and related words in other North Germanic languages probably show a development from the Germanic base of blank adj., and hence, although perhaps ultimately related, do not show close morphological parallels. It is likely that the various different meanings documented in Old Icelandic (probably ‘pale’, ‘yellowy brown’, ‘dark brown’, and ‘grey’, chiefly in describing the colour of animals) show semantic developments unrelated to that shown by the English word.
Old Icelandic blek ink and related words in other North Germanic languages probably show a borrowing from Old English: see further bleck n. (which may show a reborrowing from early Scandinavian). With use as noun compare also blatch n.
Form history.
The β. forms reflect early Middle English lengthening in open syllables (although some instances of β. spellings may correspond to pronunciations with a short vowel, and likewise some instances of α. spellings may correspond to pronunciations with a long vowel).
From an early date the orthographical forms of this word and of blake adj. show some overlap, and consequently the two words can sometimes be difficult to distinguish where the context does not make clear which word is intended. In addition to identity in certain spellings, occasional overlap of pronunciation perhaps also occured already in Old English due to the shortening of long vowels before consonant clusters (i.e. in compounds and some inflected forms ofblake adj.); in Middle English, after lengthening in open syllables in inflected forms of black adj. (compare β. forms), the two words would potentially have had the same pronunciation in northern dialects. In some instances it is unclear which word is shown by a particular example (compare also note at sense A. 4a); a selection of ambiguous examples is given below. (The two Old English verse examples (quots. OE1, OE2) appear to show respectively a metrically short form, i.e. black adj., in a context where one might expect blake adj., and a metrically long form, i.e. blake adj., in a context where one might expect black adj.) Compare:eOE Let. to Edward the Elder (Sawyer 1445) in F. E. Harmer Sel. Eng. Hist. Docs. 9th & 10th Cent. (1914) 30 Ða wæs ic ðara monna sum ðe ðærto genemned wæran, & Wihtbord & Ælfric..& Byrhthelm & Wulfhun ðes blaca æt Sumortune.
OE Phoenix 296 Þonne is se finta fægre gedæled, sum brun, sum basu, sum blacum splottum searolice beseted [L. fulvo distincta metallo].
OE Christ & Satan 195 Læte him to bysne hu þa blacan feond for oferhygdum ealle forwurdon.
c1225 (▸?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl. 34) (1938) 8 His leor deaðlich & blac & elheowet.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 9924 Ænne stunde he wes blac and on heuwe swiðe wak. ane while he wes reod.
c1330 Roland & Vernagu l. 434 [Charlemagne was] of a stern sight, Blac of here & rede of face.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm. 1396) 179 (MED), If þou wolt make hem [sc. hairs] blac [L. albos].
c1400 (▸?c1380) Cleanness l. 747 (MED), I am bot erþe ful evel and usle so blake.
c1425 Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. l. 2525 (MED), Þe riȝt weye he toke To ship ageyn, pale & blak of hewe.
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae 2 (MED), Ther were flourys bothe blewe and blake.
c1475 (▸a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Ireland) (1842) 5 Alle bare was the body, and blak by the bone.
a1500 Life St. Alexius (Titus) l. 236 (MED), No man..hym knwe, So was he lene and blake of hewe.
Semantic history.
Comparative evidence indicates that swart adj. shows the reflex of the more usual colour term for ‘black’ in early Germanic (as still in Old English), which has gradually been replaced by black in this basic meaning in English. Compare the following Old English quotation, in which the basic Latin colour term niger is glossed as swart adj., while two other semantically similar words are rendered by black adj.:OE Ælfric Gram. (Durh.) 27 Niger sweart, ater blac, teter blac.
Compare also the earlier attestation of swart adj. as a second element of compounds in sense A. 1c (see quot. OE at sense A. 1c).
Metaphorical and figurative uses of words meaning ‘black’ with negative connotations similar to those found in English are widespread in other European languages, frequently in an antonymic relationship with senses of words meanings ‘white’.
Use in names.
The word occurs early as byname and surname, probably often in sense A. 2a. In early instances, it is frequently impossible to distinguish this from onomastic use of blake adj. (compare quot. eOE above), unless there is a disambiguating context or source as in quots. eOE, 1334-5 at sense A. 2a. In Old English the word also occasionally occurs by itself as a male personal name or as an element in personal names (compare discussion at black man n.).
Similarly, the word occurs frequently in boundary markers in Anglo-Saxon charters and in place names, but, as it usually occurs in inflected forms and compounds, is especially difficult to distinguish formally from blake adj., if the geography of the location does not supply sufficient clues. Compare:OE Bounds (Sawyer 786) in D. Hooke Worcs. Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds (1990) 215 Of hagan geate to þære blacan æc.
OE Bounds (Sawyer 1248) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1885) I. 117 Of gibbe felde in þa blaca dic, andlang blaca dic into beferiþi.
OE Bounds (Sawyer 360) in S. Miller Charters of New Minster, Winchester (2001) 19 Andlang streames on ðone blacan pol, of ðam blacan pole on hwelpes dell.
Occasionally, interchange with another place-name element within the transmission suggests which of the two words is involved, as Blacbec (river name), Westmorland (1170–84; now Black Beck), also attested as Blabec (1200–14; compare blae adj.).
Use with reference to the Benedictines.
Earlier currency in sense A. 2b is perhaps implied by the following example (if Robertson's interpretation is accepted of the opaque blake had boc as meaning ‘book of the Black Order’, i.e. a copy of the Benedictine Rule):OE List of Service Bks., Bury St. Edmunds in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 250 Þas bocas haueð Salomon preost, þæt is þe codspel traht & þe martyrliua..& Sigar preost þe leceboc & blake had boc, & Æilmer ðe grete sater & ðe litle tropere forbeande & ðe Donatum. xv bocas.
However, reference to Benedictines as ‘Black Monks’ is not attested until considerably later (see Black Monk n. and its parallels in other languages), and several other solutions to this crux have been proposed; see further M. Lapidge & H. Gneuss Learning & Lit. in Anglo-Saxon Eng. (1985) 74–6.
A. adj. I. lit. 1.
a. Designating the darkest colour possible, that of soot, coal, the sky on a moonless night in open country, and a small hole in a hollow object; of or having this colour; (also) so near this as to have no recognizable colour, very dark.The quality of being black is due physically to the complete absence or absorption of light, though in practice it is generally classed as a colour (cf. colour n.1 1a).
The colour tends to be associated with evil and melancholy (cf. branch A. II.), and in Western society is the traditional colour of mourning (cf. mourning black n.).
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) ii. xiii. 144 He..hæfde blæc feax [L. nigro capillo] & blacne ondwlitan.
OE Beowulf 1801 Hrefn blaca heofones wynne bliðheort bodode.
OE Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 12 Niger coruus blac hrem.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 8832 Ane blake claðe.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 2461 (MED), Þan lai he þar so blac so pych.
c1400 (▸?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud 622) l. 6111 (MED), Þe selue men of þe londe Weren blake so colowȝy bronde.
▸1440 Promp. Parv. (Harl. 221) 38/1 Blak, Niger, ater.
a1450 York Plays 501 In helle to dwelle with feendes blake.
1542 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1908) VIII. 74 Thre elnis blak sating.
1551 W. Turner New Herball i. sig. H vjv, The wood hath a black color and is myche desyred of men for to make pypes.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 264 To looke like her are Chimnie-sweepers blake.
1611 Bible (A.V.) Matt. v. 36 Thou canst not make one haire white or blacke.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 88 From Small-coal ensueth the black colour and quick accension.
1670 F. Sandford Order Funeral Duke of Albemarle sig. A/2, A Bed of State of Black Velvet..with Black Plumes at the Four corners of the Tester.
1770 G. Washington Jrnl. 15 Oct. (1925) I. 409 The Soil..being as black as Coal.
1785 J. Imison School of Arts (1790) I. 194 Its back part is black, to stifle the rays that are reflected upon it.
1807 J. Robinson Archæol. Græca v. v. 425 They put on mourning garments, which were always black.
1842 Tennyson Gardener's Daughter in Poems (new ed.) II. 20 That hair More black than ashbuds in the front of March.
1866 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 370/2 In order to make the letters more visible they painted the stone of a black colour.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman II. 1449 Printer's ink has no vegetable basis, though its black colour is due to the element carbon.
1968 J. Turner Requiem for Two Sisters i. 5 The vicar..had never thought it part of his duty to dress in a black suit and dog-collar all the time.
2001 N. Weinstock As long as she needs Me 32 The third passenger..was a thin woman in a witchy black dress.
b. Of a very dark colour (esp. a shade of red, brown, or purple) closely approaching black.Recorded earliest in blackberry n.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 129 Flaui uel mori, blace berian.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Juliana (Royal) l. 364 (MED), Hare ahne blake blod to spitten ant te speowen.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. xxxiii. 1295 Drastes of blak wyne.
a1475 Liber Cocorum (Sloane) (1862) 7 (MED), Take black sugur for mener menne.
1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum iv. vii. f. 30/2, Other Beasts haue blacker bloud & thicker then mans bloud, and namelye Bulls and Asses.
1671 J. Archer Every Man his own Doctor i. xii. 88 All black wines, or deep Red are of thicker substance, and for the most part sweet, and nourish very much.
1715 Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. i. 608 The Priest himself..Pours the black Wine.
1853 C. Knight Once upon a Time (1859) 417 On every road-side was what was familiarly termed ‘the black ditch’. In every alley was a lesser black ditch.
1859 J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany i. 3 The blackest of port-wine.
1932 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ Sunset Song ii. 125 She..saw father lying still in his blood, black blood it looked on his face where he'd fallen and mischieved himself against a stone.
2000 H. Stevenson Instr. for Visitors (2002) 155 The soil in the vineyards on the terraced cliffs is brick red, and the vines produce a grape which is made into a thick, black glutinous wine.
c. With the names of various objects prefixed, by way of comparison.coal-, jet-, pitch-, raven-black: see the first element.
[OE Vercelli Homilies (1992) iv. 102 Oðre hwile he bið blæc & æhiwe; hwilum he bið collsweart.]
c1275 (▸?a1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) l. 75 (MED), Þin eȝene boþ colblake & brode.
a1477 Bk. of Curtesye (Oriel 79 (2)) (1882) l. 44 Youre nayles loke they be not geet blake.
1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie ii. v. 197 Tuscus..Hath drawn false lights from pitch-black loueries.
1648 N. Ward Mercurius Anti-mechanicus 36 Like a soot-black Chimney-sweepers fist sheathed in a pure-white Glove.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 6 In the sloe-black eye of the Dragon-fly or Adderbolt.
1710 London Gaz. No. 4782/4, Stolen or stray'd..a cole black Horse.
1771 P. Parsons Newmarket II. 89 On his head, observe the jett-black glossy velvet cap.
1859 E. D. E. N. Southworth Hidden Hand 74 His noble, coal-black steed.
1896 A. Cahan Yekl iv. 71 Her hair was concealed under a voluminous wig of a pitch-black hue.
1932 Collier's 9 Jan. 25/4 The sun seemed to stream through a sudden rift in pit-black skies.
1989 B. Robinson Withnail & I (1998) 25 (stage direct.) A jade streak in his hair and night-black shades.
2010 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Jan. 44/1 Lung-cauterizing hikes up ancient, slippery slopes, followed by torturous crawls over peat-black burns.
2. Characterized in some way by this quality or colour.
a. Having black hair or eyes; dark-complexioned. Cf. black Irish adj. and n. at Special uses 5a. Now rare.In early use chiefly with reference to the (descriptive) surnames or nicknames of particular individuals.
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) v. xi. 414 Wæs ðis tosceaden hweðre, þætte for hiora missenlice feaxes hiwe oðer wæs cueden se blaca Heawald, oðer se hwita Heawald [L. unus Niger Heuuald, alter Albus Heuuald diceretur].
?c1190 Reginald of Durham Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici (1847) cxlii. 417 In domo Herveii de Dunelmo cognomento Blache, id est Nigri.
1334–5 (▸OE) Writ of Edward the Confessor, Ramsey (Sawyer 1110) in F. E. Harmer Anglo-Saxon Writs (1952) 262 Brandes gerde, & Leofgares gerde & Ælfwines gerde þe Blace [L. virgatam Alfwini Nigri].
1487 (▸a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) xix. 556, I dred me sair for the blak dowglass.
a1500 Liber Pluscardensis (Marchm.) (1877) I. 284 Comitissa Marchiæ, dicta vulgariter Blac Annes of Dunbar.
c1525 J. Rastell Of Gentylnes & Nobylyte sig. C.iv, I am content wyth blak maud my wyfe.
a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) ii. i. 134 How if she be blacke and witty?
1661 S. Pepys Diary 30 Apr. (1970) II. 91 Took up Mr. Hater and his wife..I find her to be a very pretty modest black woman.
1715 tr. Thomas à Kempis Christian's Exercise vii. 13 The Fair, the Black, the Learned, the Unlearned, do all pass away.
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure I. 150 He might pass for what is commonly called a comely black man, with an air of distinction natural to his birth and condition.
1815 Hist. Univ. Cambr. I. 144 The portrait in the Master's lodge represents him as a handsome black man.
1894 J. Jacobs More Celtic Fairy Tales xxxix. 152 You black, swarthy villain of a smith.
1917 A. Cahan Rise of David Levinsky i. ii. 8 The bookbinder had a red-haired little girl whom I hated like poison. Red Esther we called her, to distinguish her from a Black Esther, whose home was on the same yard.
2001 G. Ryman Lust (2003) 74 He was not at all bad-looking, what Michael called a black Celt: slightly sallow skin, a heavy beard and black eyes.
b. Wearing black clothing, armour, etc.Recorded earliest in Black Monk n. See also Black Friar n.
c1300 St. Dunstan (Laud) l. 42 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 20 (MED), A fair Abbeye he let þare a-rere..Of blake Monekes.
c1325 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 8921 (MED), Þe priorye of seint Iames..He rerde of blake monekes.
a1400 (▸c1300) Northern Homily: Monk returns from Death (Coll. Phys.) in Middle Eng. Dict. at Monk, A Blak munk of an abbaye Was enfermer of all.
c1440 (▸?a1400) Sir Perceval (1930) l. 50 (MED), Wolde he none forsake, The Rede Knyghte ne the Blake.
a1500 (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) viii. l. 679 Þe blak ordour Iacobitis, And þe qwhit Carmelitis.
1563 T. Becon Reliques of Rome (rev. ed.) f. 68v, Pope Honorius the thyrd by his bull honourably admitted the blacke order of the blacke fryers, In the yeare of oure Lorde. 1220.
c1626 H. Bisset Rolment Courtis (1922) II. 118 The ordoure of blak monkis called Sanct Benedictis ordoure.
a1676 S. Gunton Hist. Church Peterburgh (1686) 321 All the Monks of the black Order held a General Chapter at Northampton.
1750 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 73 Clement..retained only 200 horse and 2000 foot of the black bands so called from their being clad in mourning.
1817 W. Pitt Topogr. Hist. Staffs. i. 233 The nuns themselves may be termed the Black Ladies. Their dress is entirely sable, with long thick black veils thrown over the right shoulder.
1877 L. P. Brockett Cross & Crescent 154 The black, or monastic clergy.
1919 H. F. Day Rider of King Log xxvi. 411 Along the narrow street two Black Sisters were passing on their way to the convent.
2000 C. E. Harline Burdens of Sister Margaret (rev. ed.) ii. xii. 153 The Black Sisters of Leuven..didn't even read aloud, but each sister read quietly to herself.
c. Cards. Designating or relating to a card from the suits of spades or clubs. Cf. red adj. 15.
1615 J. Swetnam Arraignm. Women iii. 61 She will make Clubs trumpe, when thou hast neuer a blacke card in thy hand.
1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode ii. i. 20 She loves nothing So well as a black Ace.
1714 Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) iii. 23 The Club's black Tyrant first her Victim dy'd.
1770 Borella Court & Country Confectioner 208 The two black aces are always trumps in any suit.
1836 H. Smith Tin Trumpet II. 16 Fortune always made clubs or spades trumps, when he had not a single black card in his hand.
1860 ‘Perseverance’ Patience 9 Remembering to place a black 3 upon a red 3, a red 6 upon a black 6.
1953 A. Christie Pocket Full of Rye viii. 52 Miss Ramsbottom continued with her patience... ‘Red seven on black eight. Now I can move up the King.’
2004 M. Clark Plain Heathen Mischief (2005) 103 Edmund had a black ace and a ten of diamonds in front of him.
d. [After Narragansett suck- black (probably pronounced /sək-/ ) in Suckáuhock black wampum beads, nausakésachick black ones (compare quot. 16432), and in other words relating to wampum.] In colonial North America: of or designating wampum beads of a (dark) purple colour. Nowhist. Cf. wampum n.As a unit of exchange, black wampum (made from quahog shell) was generally held to be twice as valuable as white wampum.
[1643 R. Williams Key into Lang. Amer. xxiv. 144 Their owne [money] is of two sorts: one white... The second is black, inclining to blew, which is made of the shell of a fish.]
1643 R. Williams Key into Lang. Amer. xxiv. 144 Suckáuhock, nausakésachick, The blacke money.
1727 C. Cadwallader Hist. Five Indian Nations i. 47 We give you this Belt of Black Wampum (thirteen deep) to wipe away your Tears.
1868 B. J. Lossing Pict. Hist. U.S. Hist. 13 Wampum..are about half an inch long, generally disposed in alternate layer of white and bluish black, and valued..at about two cents for three of the black beads, or six of the white.
1928 Boys' Life June 40/3 The black wampum corresponded with our gold money; it was twice as valuable as the white wampum.
2000 S. M. Gustafson Eloquence is Power 84 Beads made from the shells of the whelk and the quahog clam—respectively, white and black (actually purple) wampum.
e. Of coffee (and occas. tea): served without milk or cream.Recorded earliest in black coffee n. at Special uses 5a.
1796 J. Owen Trav. Europe II. 529 Black coffee, as it is called, or coffee without milk, is the general drink.
1870 A. L. Wister tr. W. von Hillern Only Girl xi. 326 Ernestine, it is not good for you to drink your coffee black. It excites your nerves.
1914 H. Kinne & A. M. Cooley Foods & Househ. Managem. v. 85 Coffee is served ‘black’, or with cream, milk, or evaporated milk and sugar.
1985 L. Lochhead True Confessions 19 Back in my bedsit, I spooned bitter instant into my..mug..and sighed. I guessed I'd just have to swallow it strong and hot and black and bitter, I'd run clean out of Marvel.
1992 R. MacNeil Burden of Desire i. 79 They drank their tea black and took a thermos of it in the car.
2005 L. Bagshawe Tuesday's Child xv. 331 We go into the coffee shop and I order two black grandes.
f. Designating a ski run or trail suitable only for advanced users, marked with a black symbol (cf. black diamond n. 3) and represented on a map in black. Cf. blue adj. 13.
1973 Chicago Tribune 25 Feb. iv. 18/5 Slopes marked red correspond to expert runs in the United States, and the black runs, well..good luck!
1986 Skiing Today Winter 57/2 Many resorts have to invent black runs to appeal to good skiers.
2001 C. Gill & D. Watts Where to ski & Snowboard 108 There are plenty of red trails that would be black in many other resorts.
3. Also with capital initial.
a. Denoting a member of any dark-skinned group of peoples, esp. a person of sub-Saharan African or Australian Aboriginal origin or descent.The term black is also often applied to persons of mixed black and other ancestry. In various places at various times it has been used in a broader sense of any person who is not readily classifiable as white.
As the preferred designation esp. of North Americans of African origin, black gained acceptance in the late 1960s, rapidly replacing Negro (see note at Negro n. 1) and coloured. Since then it has been used as a self-designation affirming a distinct ethnic and cultural identity. Terms such as African-American and Afro-Caribbean which gained popularity somewhat later are often considered more positive since they avoid reference to skin colour and any of the possible negative associations of black (see for instance the figurative uses at A. II.). However, though widely used, these have not yet displaced black.
The capitalized form can have connotations of either respect or disrespect depending on the context and writer, and for this reason is sometimes avoided.
In quot. OE referring to demons who assume the form of Ethiopians and so perhaps implying an allusion to sense A. 10.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xxxiii. 286 Iudas se apostol cwæð ealswa to þæs monan anlicnysse and ðærrihte eodon ut on ealles ðæs folces gesihðe twegen blace silhearwan [L. ethiopes nigri] of ðam anlicnyssum.
?c1225 (▸?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 173 Blac as an blamon.
▸c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 1008 (MED), With hem com mani chanbioun Mani with ladde, blac and brown.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 2785 Among þe Sarsynz blake.
c1450 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 30 (MED), Summe men sayon þat y am blac.
▸?a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) 113 Of ane blak [lady] I will indytt.
1553 R. Eden tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India sig. Biiij, The bodyes of men begin to waxe blacke and to be scorched.
1667 S. Pepys Diary 27 Jan. (1974) VIII. 33 Her little black boy came by him.
1782 India Gaz. 30 Mar., The black officers..were drummed out of the cantonments.
1842 J. C. Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 24 Forrest says the Pappua Caffres are as black as the Caffres of Africa.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 141 The ‘old Ab’ was manned by one black boy, sixty years old.
1889 Harper's Mag. July 226/1 State laws forbidding the education of the black people had just been repealed, and the white people paid nearly all the taxes that supported schools open to both races.
1921 K. S. Prichard Black Opal 105 He had worked half a million..acres..in the days before runs were fenced, with only a few black shepherds and one white man.
1938 Z. N. Hurston Tell my Horse i. 18 When I used the word black I mean in the American sense where anyone who has any colored blood at all, no matter how white the appearance, speaks of himself as black.
1982 M. Mzamane Children of Soweto 6 In our street dialect, called tsotsi-taal, the lingua franca of black youth in South Africa..we violated every known grammatical construction.
1990 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 14 July 5 A private high school..staffed by black teachers and offering Aboriginal children the chance to gain a secondary education focused predominantly on Aboriginal studies.
2001 Times 24 Apr. (Law section) 7/6 The case of the black teenager who was stabbed to death in South London by a racist gang.
b. Of or relating to black people, their history, politics, culture, etc.
a1652 R. Brome Eng. Moor iv. v. 65 in Five New Playes (1659) , Tis no better then a Prodegy To have white children in a black countrey.
1726 T. Salmon Mod. Hist. (new ed.) III. 9 Adjoining to the White Town, stands a much larger, called the Black Town, where the Portuguese, Indians, Armenians, and a great variety of other People inhabit.
1852 T. Hughes in J. Ludlow's Hist. U.S. 342 The ‘black law’, by which coloured people were excluded from the territory.
1885 R. L. Stevenson & F. Stevenson Dynamiter 152 The black blood that I now knew to circulate in my veins.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South iii. ii. 318 There were those segregated black slums which honeycombed every Southern town.
1969 Elem. Eng. 46 609/1 The speech studied was primarily that of Negro students; the list which follows is composed solely of deviations appearing in black speech.
1975 Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) 19 June 3 The employment of teachers in active sympathy with Black aspirations was a prerequisite for the Africanisation of curricula at the Black universities.
1989 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 25 Feb. 121, I like to drink in a black pub... In a white pub, you get looks and stares.
1992 Jet 2 Nov. Why are more and more White stars embracing Black music?
2007 Independent 25 Apr. 3/2 Rap music..was a powerful, even revolutionary new medium of expression born of the frustrations and deprivations of the black urban experience.
4. Dark, sombre, dusky, gloomy.
a. Of deep water, clouds, the clouded sky, etc.: reflecting or transmitting little light.Quot. OE has alternatively been explained as showing blake adj.; cf. etymological note.
eOE Bounds (Sawyer 528) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1887) II. 585 Of þam broce andlang streames on þone blæcpol.
OE Andreas 1262 Land wæron freorig cealdum cylegicelum, clang wæteres þrym ofer eastreamas, is brycgade blæce brimrade.
a1325 (▸c1280) Southern Passion (Pepys 2344) l. 1547 (MED), Þe sonne was blak; hit was eclyps.
?c1400 (▸c1380) Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) v. met. ii. l. 4432 Þe nyȝt ne wiþstondeþ nat to hym [sc. God] by þe blake cloudes.
a1425 (▸?c1350) Ywain & Gawain l. 369 Þe weder wex þan wonder blak.
a1450 Revelation of Purgatory (Longleat) (1985) l. 304 Þay drew hyr in-to a grete blake watyr, and þat semed as cold as eny yse.
a1500 (▸?a1400) Morte Arthur l. 3181 (MED), A blake water ther vndyr hym he see.
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) iii. iii. l. 86 A watry clowd, blak and dyrk.
1626 Bacon Sylua Syluarum §874 Water of the Sea..looketh Blacker when it is moved, and Whiter when it resteth.
1646 G. Buck Hist. Life Richard III iii. 84 The young Princes were imbarqued in a Ship at Tower wharfe, and conveyed..to Sea, so cast into the Blacke deeps.
1781 T. Pasley Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Private Sea Jrnls. (1931) 199 In place of the fine Weather..it..looked dreadfully Black.
1819 Byron Don Juan: Canto I lxxiii. 39 The blackest sky Foretells the heaviest tempest.
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast x, The rain fell fast, and it grew black.
1853 Putnam's Monthly Mag. Oct. 437/1 Here comes the fish, shooting up from the black depths of the river, like a meteor in a winter's night.
1949 E. Goudge Gentian Hill iii. iv. 367 The clouds were black and heavy, edged here and there with livid light.
1998 B. Bainbridge Master Georgie (1999) ii. 59 Above the fields, black clouds tumbled through a sky white and glittery as ice.
b. Of a time of day or year, a shadow, etc.: enveloped in darkness.
[OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) xxxix. 522 Swa swa se beorhta dæig todræfð þa dymlican þeostru þære sweartan nihte.]
▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. l. 1167 The blake wynter nyht.
a1425 (▸?a1400) Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 5356 The blak shadowes.
a1450 (▸?1420) Lydgate Temple of Glas (Tanner) l. 330 (MED), O ladi Venus, modir of Cupide..O blisful sterre..Cheif recounford after þe blak nyȝt.
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest iii. f. 69, Lurking or liuing in darke places and black shadowes.
a1616 Shakespeare King John (1623) v. vi. 18 Heere walke I, in the black brow of night.
1637 Milton Comus 61 In thick shelter of black shades imbower'd.
1790 R. Burns Tam o' Shanter in Poems & Songs (1968) II. 559 That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane.
1883 J. Parker Apostolic Life II. 168 Storms howling down the black chimney in the blacker night.
1906 E. Holden Country Diary Edwardian Lady (1977) 1 The blackest month of all the year Is the month of Janiveer.
1926 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 16/3 A single electric bulb burned over the white-washed entrance of a cavern that soon lost itself in black subterranean shadows.
2008 S. Armitage Gig (2009) 147 In upstate Huddersfield it was a black, blustery night, slashing with rain.
5. Deeply stained with dirt; soiled, filthy, begrimed.
▸c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 555 (MED), In a poke ful and blac, Sone he caste him on his bac.
c1450 (▸c1380) Chaucer House of Fame (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 1637 But he [sc. Eolus] Toke out hys blake trumpe of bras That fouler than the deuel was.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) ci. sig. D.ivv/1, Brysebar whan he sawe his owne handes soo foule and black it abhorred him.
1595 A. Fletcher Certaine Similies 84 Some one..taketh vp a blacke cole, which he turneth and tumbleth in his hands, till it foule and make blacke his fingers.
1602 R. Marbecke Def. Tabacco viii. sig. H4v, Foule blacke, quarrie, scorched hands.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 58 Their houses are all blacke with the smoak of this rosen.
1726 Pope tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxii. 439 On heaps of death the stern Ulysses stood, All black with dust and cover'd thick with blood.
1789 I. Munro Narr. Mil. Operat. iii. 20 The officers' rooms, the walls of which were black with dirt, had been for some time used as a granary.
1801 M. Nugent Jrnl. 31 July (1839) I. 25, I wish Lord B. would wash his hands, and use a nail-brush, for the black edges of his hands really make me sick.
1873 H. Cullwick Diaries (1984) 75 My hands was quite black & my face & arms grimed.
1958 M. R. B. Shaw tr. Stendhal Charterhouse of Parma vi. 124 The doors of her drawing-room were black with dirt from her footmen's fingers.
1999 C. Thubron In Siberia (2000) i. 14, I gaped at his features, then at his scarred hands, their nails black and worn to the quick.
6. In the names of artificial flies used in fly-fishing.
1496 Treat. Fysshynge wyth Angle in Bk. St. Albans (rev. ed.) sig. i.iiiv, The blacke louper, the body of blacke wull & lappyd abowte wyth the herle of ye pecok tayle.
a1589 L. Mascall Bk. Fishing (1590) 17 The blacke Fly or lowper, (in May) the body is made of blacke wooll.
1655 I. Walton Compl. Angler (ed. 2) v. 145 There are twelve Kinds of Artificial made Flies to Angle with upon the top of the water... The sixth is, the black-fly.., the body made of black-wool and lapt about with the herle of a Peacocks tail.
1766 R. Bowlker Universal Angler 73 The Bleak..may be taken with a very small, fine, artificial black gnat.
1799 tr. Laboratory (ed. 6) II. x. 311 Black-midge, or gnat. Dubbing, of the down of a mole.
1837 J. Kirkbride Northern Angler 57 The Black Spinner..has acquired a high reputation, both as a lake and a river-fly.
1861 H. Wade Halcyon vii. 96 Large fish have been taken, especially with the black midge, the smallest of our artificial flies.
1923 Daily Mail 11 Aug. 7 The Lea should yield some good specimens of these fish to the black gnat.
1990 D. Hughes Tactics for Trout ii. vii. 156 Any fly from a Black Woolly Worm to a Bitch Creek Nymph will turn a trout's head when salmon fly nymphs are on the march across the bottom.
7. Music. a. In musical notation.
(a) Early Music. Written in black rather than red (see red adj. 14).Freq. used in collocation with full (denoting a symbol with a solid head) and void (denoting a symbol with an unfilled or open head), the latter typically having half the time value of the former, the reverse relation to that described in sense A. 7a(b).
[1504 W. Cornysh Tretyse bytwene Enformacione & Musyke in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1908) 120 424 In musyke I haue lernyde iiij colours, as thys: blake, fulle blake, voyde, & in lyke wyse, rede.]
a1540 J. Tucke in R. Woodley John Tucke (1993) 68 The blake long contenyȝth as much as þe rede and halfe as much more.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke Annot. sig. ¶4, If a white note (which they called black voide) happened amongste blacke full, it was diminished of halfe the value.
1776 J. Hawkins Gen. Hist. Music II. ii. v. 180 This kind of alteration in the value by a change in the colour of notes..is mentioned by most authors, who when they speak of the diversity of colours mention black full and black void, and red full and red void.
1880 W. S. Rockstro in G. Grove Dict. Music II. 471/1 About the year 1370 both the black and red forms gradually fell into disuse.
1989 A. E. Planchart in H. M. Brown & S. Sadie Performance Pract. before 1600 vii. 139 The most sophisticated use of coloration was that of English composers of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, who used simultaneously black full, black void, red full and red void notation.
(b) Of a note: having a solid or filled head, rather than an open one, signifying, in the case of the crotchet (and sometimes smaller values) a note of half the time value of its open equivalent. Sometimes also, in certain contexts: designating such a note signifying a time value bearing some other proportional relation to notes of standard value. Cf. open adj. 14b, white note n. (a) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1614 T. Ravenscroft Briefe Disc. 13 The Externall Signes are those which are set, at the beginning of Songs, and are the Characters of the Degrees, for the Diminishing of the White and Blacke Notes.
1658 J. Playford Breif Introd. Skill Musick i. 29 This swift Triple Time is many times prick'd in Black Notes, which Black Note..is of one and the same Measure with the Minim.
1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 303 Notes in a lozenge form..whether the heads were full or open, were at first called Minims; but when a still quicker note was thought necessary, the white or open notes only had that title, and the black were..by the English [called] Crotchets.
1841 J. F. Warner Dict. Musical Terms p. iii/2 in tr. G. Weber Gen. Music Teacher, The abbreviations..consist for the most part in the use of..strokes which are drawn through the stems of the filled or black notes.
1923 J. Pulver Dict. O.E. Music & Musical Instruments 131 It was first written as a black note, and later as an open one with a tail on the right side.
1974 G. Read Mus. Notation v. 63 The note-head..is somewhat oval in shape, and is either open (or ‘white’..) or closed (‘black’..).
1999 Times (Nexis) 14 Jan., The link between the eye and ear starts with the very notation of music, its patterns of symbols and staves, black notes, white notes, rectangles, hairpins, half-circles with dots.
b. Designating a key on a piano or similar keyboard instrument which is coloured black rather than white; designating a note corresponding to such a key (typically a sharp or flat, although black is used for naturals on some, esp. older, instruments). Cf. white note n. (b) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1664 J. Birchensha tr. J. H. Alsted Templum Musicum iv. 22 So the black Keyes proceed with the white in the chromatic.
1811 Philos. Mag. July 47 In the profile, or longitudinal section of this instrument,..the following parts are the same as instruments now in use: A the finger-keys, B the raised black keys for flats or sharps, [etc.].
1828 W. L. Bowles Hermes Britannicus v. 75 Hence the well known idea that the black notes of a piano of themselves produce a kind of Scotch tune.
1920 P. Grainger Let. 1 Sept. in All-round Man (1994) 50 To make it interesting I'm going to feature my sustaining pedal action.., fist on black note chords, & glissando action.
1970 Galpin Soc. Jrnl. 23 148 A small anonymous English seventeenth-century spinet, with white naturals, black sharps.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 30 Nov. (Arts & Leisure section) 6/1 Irving Berlin..favored the ebonies over the ivories when he first started playing. His melodies found their home among the black keys.
8. Ceramics. Designating any of a number of different wares, either glazed or unglazed, having a black appearance.With reference to a variety of porcelain produced by Wedgwood, cf. basalt n. 2.
1736 R. Brookes tr. J.-B. Du Halde Gen. Hist. China II. 333 Black China-ware has..its Value and Beauty.
1763 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. 185 Hard Fire-Clay, of a duller whiter Colour, which they use for their black Wares.
1787 Wedgwood in L. Jewitt Wedgwoods (1865) 332 The black basaltes having the appearance of antique bronze..is excellently adapted for busts, sphynxes, small statues, etc.
1832 G. R. Porter Treat. Manuf. Porc. & Glass 17 Basaltes, or black ware..was a black porcelainous biscuit, having nearly the same properties as the natural stone.
1875 E. Meteyard Wedgwood Handbk. 391 Black Marble. A crystalline terra-cotta body. The colour is black shaded. Black painted. Single stems and flowers painted on black glazed ware... Black printed. Cream-ware printed over or under the glaze with patterns in black.
1885 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 618/2 Black Pottery is usually made from a very silicious or sandy clay.
1936 Discovery Sept. 289/1 This ‘black burnished’ pottery is identical with the black ware found in Mohenjodaro and not dissimilar to the black ware..of the earlier Chalcolithic periods of Baluchistan and Persia.
1993 Hobart Mercury (Nexis) 10 July, Ben Richardson's deep-lustred black wares certainly held one's attention, the onyx-like surfaces absolutely fascinating.
9. Marked or affected by burning; charred.
1800 Olio 2 Apr. 24/1 All sad is my Soul, when I view yon black Ruins Where once stood the cabin of Mary la More.
1820 J. Lawson Orient Harping i. 100 Patient brethren view the black remains Of their once peaceful settlement.
1863 A. Keary Janet's Home vii. 132, I had the audacity to find fault with the black toast and cold eggs Mrs. Morgan provided for us.
1944 F. E. Lewis Then & Now in Michigan vii. 68 Once a fire had passed, black stumps, black logs, and black ground was all that was left.
1998 J. M. Norris Designing Second Lang. Performance Assessments 111 A photographic representation of the particular offending food item(s) (clumped pasta, black steak, etc.).
2009 Brantford (Ont.) Expositor (Nexis) 16 Jan. b6 The fire..reduced the two-storey home to black timbers.
II. In figurative senses, chiefly with negative connotation.
10. Very evil or wicked; iniquitous; foul, hateful.
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) iii. i. 124 Hig [sc. the faithless] ne þicgeað þæs lambes flæsc þe soð Crist ys, ac þæs dracan þe wæs geseald þam blacan folce to mete, þæt ys þam synfullum.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1874) V. 229 Blake flokkes of Scottes [tetri Scotorum greges].
a1400 (▸c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 11540 (MED), Whan þou synnest, þou..makest þy soule black as pyk.
a1450 (▸1410) in J. Kail 26 Polit. Poems (1904) 34 (MED), This holy tyme..Burnysche bryȝt ȝoure soules blake.
1539 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Prouerbes f. liijv, Medle not wt naughtye felowes & such as haue blacke and diffamed maners.
1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha (1588) App., You wil haue a blacke soule..if you doe not the sooner forsake the Queene..and her heresies.
1609 J. Davies Holy Roode sig. G4, Red Seas, to drowne our blacke Egyptian sinnes.
1692 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 25 The portion of the blackest Criminals.
1713 S. Pycroft Brief Enq. Free-thinking 25 He has vented the blackest Calumnies.
1738 A. M'Aulay in Swift's Lett. clix, I shall never be guilty of such black ingratitude.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones VI. xvii. vii. 138 Concealing Facts of the blackest Die.
1839 P. J. Bailey Festus 71 Die with the black lie flapping on your lips.
1865 H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons III. xv. 156 The man..could still feel terrified and abashed at the contrast between his own black soul and the sacred purity of the child before him.
1920 Sandusky (Ohio) Reg. 5 Feb. 4/2 To sneer at and belittle America's vastly important part in the winning of it [sc. the war] is proof either of a weirdly short memory or a heart full of black ingratitude.
1999 J. Butler Ethics of Health Care Rationing ii. 55 Deliberately to put the life of a patient at risk because of a lust for his wife is among the blackest crimes in the professional book.
11.
a. Of a point or period of time: characterized by disaster or despair; unhappy, calamitous.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 245 Þe feste of þilke dayes is i-cleped Quinquatria, þat is, þe fyue bl[a]k dayes, for þe sorwe and þe bitternesse þat þe Romayns mysspedde whan þe Frensche men and Hannibal byseged hem all aboute.
1568 J. Rowll Cursing l. 12 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) II. 277 Blak be þair hour.
1651 J. F. tr. H. C. Agrippa Three Bks. Occult Philos. iii. lxiii. 548 The ninth of July is a black day with them, because on that day the destructions of both the Temples happened.
1713 L. Milbourne Guilty Conscience makes Rebel 22 Great..was the Wickedness of these ungrateful Nations, in those Black Days of the great Rebellion.
1759 W. Mason Caractacus 16 That black hour, (May memory ever raze it from her records).
1829 G. Griffin Collegians I. vii. 153 O, wirra, Eily! this is the black day to your ould father.
1871 C. H. Spurgeon Metrop. Tabernacle Pulpit 282 Ah, there were brave days in those black periods, brave days when great hearts told out by dying how dear Christ was to them.
1906 Mother Earth Oct. 5 Even the revolutionists and anarchists of this country have added nothing that would serve to silhouette the personality and act of the man upon the background of those black days.
1956 S. H. Bell Erin's Orange Lily iii. 39, I remember listening to a journeyman fitter recalling that black time in the history of the Belfast working-class.
2003 Guardian 17 Nov. i. 15/1 It's more than a black day for this town, it's a stab in its heart.
b. Prefixed to the name of a day of the week to denote a specific past date associated with disaster, defeat, ruin, etc. In later use esp.: denoting a day of panic in the financial world, such as may be caused by a sudden fall in share prices.For more established uses of Black Friday, Monday, Saturday, Thursday, and Wednesday, see the main entries. Recorded earliest in Black Saturday n. 1.
1576 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. (1833) II. ii. 56 Quhen he and he went togidder to the blak Settirday..he drew him be the Kirk of Dalrye.
1644 D. Harcourt Clergies Lament. 11 The battell of Ballemony, which the English in regard of the fatability of the day, call Blacke Friday.
1757 T. Smollett Compl. Hist. Eng. III. v. vii. 49 This treachery the Scots ascribed to the instigation of Drury. It was denominated Drury's peace, or the black Saturday.
1851 Illustr. Austral. Mag. (Melbourne) July 26 The 6th of February last, which received..the ominous designation of ‘Black Thursday’, will be long remembered in Victoria for its intense heat and burning winds, and the extensive conflagrations that occurred over all the country.
1872 San Francisco Chron. 16 May 3/4 (heading) Black Wednesday. Extraordinary fall in the stock market. Hundreds ruined.
1930 Observer 16 Feb. 6/4 The shooting of British Intelligence Officers on Black Sunday.
1943 G. D. H. Cole John Burns 13 The events of Black Monday, as the day of the riots came to be called.
1988 Financial Times 14 Oct. 19/7 On Black Tuesday, October 20, when the Tokyo market fell by a record 3,836 points, the ministry acted swiftly, calling traders of the four brokers together.
1995 Guardian 1 May ii. 10/4 On Black Saturday, when it was not clear whether the Soviet Union would accept the naval quarantine of Cuba.., Dean Acheson told President Kennedy that the missiles would have to be knocked out.
12.
a. Having or demonstrating evil intent; malignant, deadly; sinister.
1547 J. Bale Lattre Examinacyon A. Askewe Pref. f. 9v, Their sowles they can not harme with all their popes blacke curses.
1565 T. Norton & T. Sackville Gorboduc iv. ii. sig. D.i, The Lawe of kind and trothe thus rent in twaine His hart on mischiefe set, and in his brest Blacke treason hid then.
1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. D6, Many a blacke curse haue they of the poore commons for their doing.
a1616 Shakespeare Henry V (1623) ii. iv. 56 That black Name, Edward, black Prince of Wales.
1634 W. Habington Castara ii. 74 The blacke edict of a tyrant grave.
1713 R. Steele in Guardian 1 Apr. 1/1 Think it Madness to be unprepared against that black Moment.
1758 H. Walpole Catal. Royal Authors (1759) I. 142 The throne..usurped by the Queen's black enemy, Philip.
1821 Byron Sardanapalus v. i. 149 That's a black augury!
1855 Graham's Mag. Dec. 507/2 Her enemies shall have sated their black desire for her blood.
1920 H. Titus Last Straw xxi. 196, I beg of you, ma'am, to..dissuade him from his black purpose, if not by an appeal to honor, then by an appeal to his shame.
1954 I. Berlin Hist. Inevitability vi. 63 [They] paint individuals or classes or societies as heroes and villains, wholly white or unimaginably black.
2005 S. Russe Beyond Pale i. 14 We are offering you the chance to leave behind the darkness, the black desires, the blood urges that torment you.
b. [Compare pièce noire n., film noir n.] Of comedy, a comic piece, etc.: presenting tragic or distressing situations in humorous terms; wry, ironic. Freq. in black comedy, black humour n. 2.
1961 Times 14 Oct. 12/6 Another festival choice is the Spanish Placido, a new film by Berlanga, described as ‘another excursion into black comedy’.
1965 Listener 11 Mar. 379/3 The whole form of ‘Berck-Plage’, a poem about a seaside funeral, is a most remarkable piece of black cinema.
1984 N.Y. Mag. 10 Dec. 84 (caption) A Scrooge at once sad and wicked, with a smile of black irony.
2004 Time Out 25 Aug. 138/1 A raucous, high voltage black comedy following the journalists ‘embedded’ with the US military in Iraq as they embarked on the Pentagon's prime time war.
13.
a. Designating something which indicates disgrace, undesirability, failure, liability to punishment, etc. (often involving or consisting in a black symbol). Cf. black book n. 2, blacklist n., black mark n.
?1550 J. Bale Apol. agaynste Papyst f. cxvi, He feared the blacke blotte of treason for maynteynynge monkery, whych hys prince had condempned afore.
1595 B. Barnes Divine Cent. Spirituall Sonnets iii. sig. A4v, Let mercie mittigate the large blacke bill Of my dead sinnes.
1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. xxix. 286 To punish by a note, which may be called, the black Bill.
1714 M. Hole Pract. Disc. Liturgy Church of Eng. I. xiv. 113 Shortly a black Bill of our most hidden Iniquities shall be publickly read before us.
1832 A. Picken Changeable Charlie in Athenaeum July 431/1 When mounted thus on the top of the black stool, he seemed so delighted.
1841 Dickens Barnaby Rudge viii. 281 Write Curzon down, Denounced..Put a black cross against the name of Curzon.
1870 Food Jrnl. 1 Dec. 584 A ‘black page’ is reserved for towns with an unsatisfactory bill of health or an excessive death-rate.
1920 Atlantic Monthly Feb. 183/1, I said I would be glad to play for them if it would n't be held against me and put down as a large black blot on my efficiency record.
2007 J. S. Corum Fighting War on Terror iii. 84 Although there are some black spots on the American record of fighting insurgencies..U.S. policy has historically eschewed extreme measures such as those applied by the Germans or Soviets.
b. [Short for blackleg n. 4.] Originally (of a person): that performs blackleg labour. In later use (of goods, a vessel, or work): not to be handled or undertaken by trade union members, esp. so as to express support for an industrial dispute elsewhere.
1911 L. St. C. Grondola Collar & Cuffs 100 None of these gentlemen here is blacklegs... Anyone wantin' to prove who's black let him step out here.
1917 Independent (N.Y.) 20 Oct. 120/2 The strikers notified the merchants that if they refused credit to any of their present customers they would be declared ‘black’.
1927 Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 12/2 The Waterside Workers' Federation to-day declared as ‘black’ the steamer Kakakiri.
1935 Economist 8 June 1302/2 [Work books] will facilitate the control of the labour market and the prevention of ‘double-earning’ and ‘black labour’.
1959 New Statesman 11 July 34/1 Meanwhile, as magazines and provincial papers progressively close down, tension is increasing in those offices where arrangements have been made to produce ‘black’ editions.
1963 Times 28 May 5/1 When supervisory staff took over maintenance and transport driving duties, all the firm's production men quickly classified their work as ‘black’ and walked out.
2005 N. Harding Staying Red iv. 81 At Canary Wharf..a fruit ship had been declared black so the owners had sent the ship to Oslo, but no docker would handle it there either.
c. Finance (chiefly Brit.). Designating unfavourable information about a person's financial status, esp. his or her credit record, held or passed on by a bank, finance house, etc. Cf. white adj. Additions.
1973 Times 18 Aug. 18/2 Records of successful transactions are termed ‘white’ information, and adverse entries ‘black’ information.
1989 Observer 26 Feb. 72/8 They [sc. banks] are releasing ‘black information’ to credit agencies about clients who have defaulted.
1993 Guardian 10 Nov. ii. 12/4 Some of this is ‘black’ data on credit requests and fraudsters, with the high-street banks refusing to provide the ‘white’ data of customers' everyday transactions, citing a duty of confidentiality.
1995 P. van Cayseele et al. in A. van Witteloostuijn Market Evol. viii. 130 Other countries have opted for a negative or ‘black’ credit register: all borrowers who defaulted in the past are recorded in the register.
2009 S. O'Connell Credit & Community iii. 112 Like other credit reference bureaux, it faced criticism for stockpiling black information rather than white data.
14.
a. Of an emotion, state of mind, etc.: full of gloom, melancholy, misery, or sadness; very depressed.
1562 A. Brooke tr. M. Bandello Tragicall Hist. Romeus & Iuliet f. 57v, His wordes haue chased straight out of her hart despayre, Her blacke and ougly dredfull thoughts by hope are waxen fayre.
1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xi. f. 67v, He..that is ambicious in climbing vp the turning wheele, throwen downe beneth the brinke of aduerse lucke, whelmed in the ditche & pit of blacke despaire.
a1625 King James VI & I Lusus Regius (1901) 46 This claiey dregg..is blake melankolie.
1659 H. Hammond Paraphr. & Annot. Psalms (xlii. 9 Paraphr.) 222 What a black gloomy condition am I now in?
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 570 He had also very black fits of the spleen.
1807 J. Barlow Columbiad i. 22 The slow still march of black despair.
1856 H. Worsley Life M. Luther II. v. 98 If a fit of spiritual despondency came over him Kate charmed away the black mood by the solace of reading.
1921 Amer. Woman Jan. 8/4 The pounding of the wheels wove into his brain a sort of rhythm, and with the rhythm was born a great idea, the product of his mood of black wrath, and a twisted sense of humor.
1939 Life 11 Sept. 56/3 The future seemed hopeless and Göring was in black despair.
2007 S. Sartarelli tr. A. Camilleri Patience of Spider 206 He didn't feel like eating any more. A wave of black melancholy had come over him.
b. Of an appearance, situation, or prospect: foreboding, threatening; full of anger or hatred.
1604 B. Jonson His Pt. Royall Entertainem. sig. B3v, Now heauen auert an ill Of that blacke looke.
1681 G. Burnet Serm. before Aldermen City of London, Jan 30 18 What a black prospect have we of most terrible confusions to follow, on such a fatal blow.
1709 G. Stanhope Paraphr. IV. 190 When the Face of affairs looked blackest and no glimpse of Comfort appeared.
1832 H. Martineau For Each & All ii. 25 His countenance was black as night.
1865 J. Skelton Campaigner at Home xiii. 335 It looked very black for Nancy, for she could not swim.
1958 N. Fleischer 50 Years at Ringside i. iv. 22 The boxing game was being threatened by certain disgruntled politicians and blue law agitators, and things looked black for the sport.
2007 Observer (Nexis) 24 June 31 Nor are his prospects as black as many Labour people had been fearing and many Tories had been hoping.
c. to look black : to frown, to look angrily or threateningly (at, on, or upon a person).
1608 H. Clapham Errour Left Hand 58 The heauens looke black vpon thee. The aire drawes it selfe from thee. The earth trembles at the waight of such a Reprobate.
1699 J. Barry Reviving Cordial iv. 75 The very Face of Providence shall seem to Frown and look black on thee.
1790 M. Wollstonecraft tr. C. G. Salzmann Elem. Morality I. xiv. 104, I have offended my parents, and the strangers looked black on me.
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. vi. 120 My brother-in-law..looked rather black upon me.
1855 R. Browning Fra Lippo Lippi in Men & Women I. 42 The monks looked black.
1917 W. Riley Way of Winepress xxi. 173 Am I to be sworn at and looked black at because I give an order?
a1974 R. Roberts Ragged Schooling (1997) xviii. 198 ‘We'll have to strip the bleedin' thing down.’ He looked black at me.
2005 J. Neel Ticket to Ride vii. 106 Paul was looking black and she did not dare ignore him any longer.
15.
a. Designating a commercial institution, commerce, or work which contravenes economic regulations, often by using unofficial cash transactions to avoid taxation; (also) of or relating to illicit trading; bought or sold in this way. Cf. black economy n. (b) at Special uses 5a, black market n., black money n. 3.
1922 Fortn. Rev. July 66 Stock dealing in Russia has never ceased; before 1921 detection involved a violent death; but in the summer of that year ‘green’ and ‘black’ bourses flourished in every big city.
1937 S. Webb & B. Webb Soviet Communism (ed. 2) II. 1199 There was always in Moscow and Leningrad, Kharkov and Kiev, the so-called ‘Black Exchange’, where native speculators illegally offered to the tourist, for American dollars or British pound notes, five, ten or twenty times as many roubles as the State Bank would give.
1938 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Mar. 3/1 We're expected to buy ‘black’ rubles or bootleg rubles which are available..at a fraction of the standard rate. We used to get them in what we call the Black Bourse... It's..a name applied to the ‘bootleg’ circles; to channels through which we bought black rubles.
1942 Ann. Reg. 1941 175 Contravention of war economic decrees, e.g. black slaughtering, were frequently punished with death.
1946 Times 18 Apr. 5/6 There are some things—food bought ‘black’ and services—which are not to be had for Reichsmarks.
1977 Time 15 Aug. 13/1 Black labor acts as a shock absorber enabling Italy to survive economic crisis.
2008 Guardian 25 Mar. 9/4 The trade in ‘black landings’—where trawlers illicitly sold over-quota fish—has been eradicated.
b. Mil. (orig. and chiefly U.S.). Designating an operation, assignment, etc., which is secret or covert, esp. one conducted outside ordinary channels of command and accountability. Cf. black op n. at Special uses 5a.
?1945 Rep. Operations U.S. Army: 12th Army Group Publicity & Psychol. Warfare Section XIV. iv. vii. 206 Certain special demands were placed on the Intelligence Section in connection with the black operations carried out.
1967 J. H. Roberts February Plan II. i. 157 You are to consider the whole conversation black, the whole procedure black, you are to handle it all yourself.
1985 W. J. Boyne & S. L. Thompson Wild Blue 229 A black assignment is beyond Top Secret: it's done in complete secrecy with a budget that is not revealed to the public.
2004 Wall St. Jrnl. (Central ed.) 17 May a20/4 In the early Bush presidency there was a shortage of covert insertions into sovereign states..and insufficient funding for black operations.
B. n. 1. A black ink, dye, or pigment.
†a. Black ink or other writing fluid; (hence) black written characters. Cf. bleck n., blatch n. Obs.in the black: in writing.
black and white: see black and white n. 1a, 1b.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 184 Incaustum uel atramentum, blæc.
OE Wulfstan Canons of Edgar (Corpus Cambr.) (1972) ii. 2 We lærað þæt hi to ælcon sinoðe habban ælce geare..blæc and bocfel to heora gerædnessum.
c1330 (▸?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 2702 An old hore man it was bitake So we finden in þe blake.
a1400 (▸?c1300) Lay Folks Mass Bk. (Royal) (1879) l. 282 (MED), Knele þou doun & say þen þis þat next in blak wryten is.
1447 Acct. in Berks., Bucks. & Oxon. Archaeol. Jrnl. (1905) 11 56 The seconde folio begynnyng in blacke ‘Qui Venit’.
b. Any black substance, esp. one used for blacking; any of various black pigments, paints, dyes, or varnishes used esp. by artists or in industry; freq. with distinguishing word.Berlin, bone, Brunswick, ivory, lamp, Spanish black: see the first element.
In quot. OE in fig. context.
OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 411 [Ut] caccabatum furvę fuliginis atramentum exhorruit : befyled deorces, nigre, sotes blæc of scoc, wiþsoc.
c1300 (▸?c1225) King Horn (Cambr.) (1901) l. 1203 (MED), He wipede þat blake [i.e. coal dust or soot] of his swere.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 123v (MED), Thynges blacking heres..þat blacke [L. illud nigrum] þat is in þe middes of papauer rubeum mixte with oleo mirtino.
a1475 in J. O. Halliwell Early Eng. Misc. (1855) 75 (MED), To make a fyne blake, take a clene pece of brasse..and hold hit overe a brynynge candelle of roseyne, to the fyre have congeylyd blacke on the brase.
1477 Earl Rivers tr. Dictes or Sayengis Philosophhres (Caxton) (1877) lf. 63v, One of his neyghbours made dye his here in blak.
1581 Act 23 Eliz. ix. §3 Clothes..dyed with a galled and mathered Black.
1670 W. Simpson Hydrol. Ess. 75 Dyers in the making of their Blacks, use not Alom but Vitriol.
1735 J. Barrow Dict. Polygraphicum I. sig. E4v, There is a colour call'd cold Black or Jesuits Black, prepar'd of the same ingredients as the former, but without being first dyed blue.
1798 Weekly Mag. 26 May 114/2 The experiments succeeded more frequently and surely with the coarser, more unctuous, and heavier, like Russian painters' black.
1825 W. B. Stevenson Hist. Narr. Resid. S. Amer. I. v. 109 The black for dyeing is obtained from the expressed juice of the root.
1852 J. S. Bradley Housekeeper's Guide (1860) 126 Blacks require no preparation; but it is necessary to body them; that is, to fill up the pores of the wool, silk, or any other substance.
1903 F. H. Leeds & W. J. Atkinson Acetylene x. 233 Acetylene black has also been tried in calico printing, and has given far better results in tone and strength than other blacks.
1985 E. Kerridge Textile Manuf. in Early Mod. Eng. xii. 167 Common or Flanders blacks were really ultra-black blues and purples. True or Spanish black could only be made with copperas mixed with galls, and, optionally..steel flings or slip also.
2005 D. Markle & L. Vanover Ult. Guide to Painting from Photographs ii. 52 Lay a mound of Mars Black on your palette straight from the tube.
c. Any of various preparations used by shoemakers, tanners, curriers, etc., for dyeing or staining leather black. Cf. blacking n.1 2b, shoemaker's black n. at shoemaker n. Compounds 2b, blatch n.
1558 W. Ward tr. G. Ruscelli Secretes Alexis of Piemount v. f. 100, Take of the blacke that Curriers or tanners doo black their skins with, for you may haue much for moneye.
1568 T. Hill Arte Gardening (rev. ed.) iii. xxix. f. 104v, The Seedes also myxed with shomakers blacke, doth take away wartes.
1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi vi. 244 The seeds of Basil, put up into the nose, procure sneezing; and being mixed with shoemakers black, do take away warts, killing them to the very roots.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια 277 Shoomakers black with vineger.
1754 Dict. Art & Sci. I. 311/1 Currier's Black, a black made with gall-nuts, sour beer, and old iron, termed the first black. The second black, which gives the gloss to the leather, is composed of gall-nuts, copperas, and gum arabic.
1787 W. Hutton Courts of Requests 77 His shoes received their last tincture of black from the currier.
1897 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather (ed. 2) 623 In the making of ‘sig’ stains, blacks and pastes for leather, borax is the currier's friend.
1905 Leather Manufacturer June 97 The skins are now given a coat of good aniline black; chrome leather black, or tannin leather black, are suitable.
1998 J. W. Humphrey et al. tr. Pliny in Greek & Rom. Technol. ix. 386 The Greeks have made a connection between copper and shoemakers' black by their name for it; for they call it chalcanthon [copperflower].
2. Black fabric.
a. Black clothing, esp. that worn as a sign of mourning. Also in pl. (now Sc.) and occas. with the sense ‘black or dress trousers’.
c1225 (▸?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl. 34) (1940) l. 638 (MED), Nis ha [sc. Pride] nawt i claðes..þah hit beo merke þrof..oðer hwiles, ah under hwit oðer blac & ase wel under grei ase under grene.
a1425 (▸?a1400) Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 4756 And eke as wel by [read be] amourettes In mournyng blak as bright burnettes.
c1460 Ipomedon (Longleat) (1889) 356 (MED), They were both in blak.
a1500 Merchant & Son l. 145 in W. C. Hazlitt Remains Early Pop. Poetry Eng. (1864) I. 142 Fadur, why appere ye thus in black? ar not yowre synnys foryevyn?
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 259 Tenne moneths..was the full time they vsed to weare blackes for the death of their fathers.
1636 D. Featley Clavis Mystica xix. 247 Neither are all that weare blackes his mourners.
1641 R. Greville Disc. Nature Episcopacie i. iv. 17 Some to Ministers, as Cassockes, Gownes..Canonicall Coats, Blackes.
1699 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 557 The King..has ordered all his subjects to goe into black.
1728 J. Gay Beggar's Opera iii. vi. 45 If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes—Velvet Scarfs—Petticoats—Let it be what it will—I am your Chap—for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa V. xlvi. 326 Whom dealtest thou with for thy blacks?
1792 S. Whyte Coll. Poems (ed. 2) 47 Our Players scarce saw me in my blacks array'd.
1837 Dickens Pickwick Papers xxxiii. 354 A gentleman in black..proceeded to call over the names of the jury.
1862 Thackeray Philip I. 174 My old blacks show the white seams so, that you must..rig me out with a new pair.
1904 Daily Chron. 3 May 6/4 The duchess was in black with diamanté wings in her hair.
1920 C. Murray In Country Places 15 But noo when Sunday mornin' comes I hearken for the bell, An' few set oot in runkled blacks mair eager than mysel'.
a1963 S. Plath Coll. Poems (1981) 170 A man in black with a Meinkampf look And a love of the rack and the screw.
1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together iv. 96 If he chucks me out now, I'm going to spend the day wearing black and weeping loudly.
b. In pl. Hangings of black cloth used in churches, etc., at funerals; funereal drapery. Also occas. in sing. and fig. Now rare.
1537 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1905) VI. 330 To ane pursyvant to pas till Dunde to charge the inhabitantis thairof to bring thare blakis to Edinburgh, for the Quenis tyrement.
1608 T. Middleton Mad World, my Masters ii. sig. Cv, Ile pay him agen when he dies, in so many blacks, Ile haue the Church hung round with a noble a yard.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues, Littre,..the blacke wherewith the vpper part of a Church is compassed, at the funerall of a great person.
1650 J. Tatham Ostella 85 (title) To a vertuous lady, on whom envy had thrown a scandal, for which she mourned, and hung her chamber with blacks.
1652 E. Benlowes Theophila i. 32 Her Heart is hung with Blacks, with Dust she cloyes Her golden Tresses.
1707 Poems on Affairs of State IV. 254 Dismal Blacks hung round the Universe, And Stars (like Tapers) burn'd upon his Herse.
1710 ‘J. Touchwood’ Quixote Redivivus 16 The Company of Upholders are not able to furnish Blacks enough for the Deceas'd.
1869 T. Baker Hist. Coll. St. John Evangelist I. 186 The old court and St Mary's church were hung with blacks, besides escutcheons and many papers of verses.
1997 J. Woodward Theatre of Death viii. 149 All four rooms were hung with blacks.
3. Black colour or hue; (as a count noun) a particular variety of black.
?c1225 (▸?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 206 Bi halde his blac & naut his hwit.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. viii. 1277 Þer ben seuene colours, þat strecche fro white toward blake.
a1450 (▸?1420) Lydgate Temple of Glas (Tanner) l. 1250 (MED), For white is whitter, if it be set bi blak, And swete is swettir eftir bitternes.
a1500 Foly of Fulys & Thewis of Wysmen l. 155 in R. Girvan Ratis Raving & Other Early Scots Poems (1939) 56 Thai luf nocht to mak of blak quhyt.
1578 J. Rolland Seuin Seages 82 [To] mak..blak of that was neuer blew.
1645 S. Rutherford Tryal & Triumph of Faith iv. 29 All his blacks are white.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. ii. 264 The Mind perceives, that White is not Black, That a Circle is not a Triangle, That Three are more than Two, and equal to One and Two.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl., It is all over of a fine gay red, only that the long-wing feathers are tipped with black at their extremities.
1792 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina (new ed.) Introd. p. xx, On the top of the abdomen was a round red spot or ocelle encircled with black.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 175 We must take black and white into our list, as colours with the painter though not with the optician.
1856 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters IV. 45 Veronese's general practice will be..to paint the pattern with one even black.
1924 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 11 Nov. 4/5 Thus we see..cranberry with black, black with pervenche and tortoise with mahogany.
1956 I. English Every Eye 96 The spiked greenery of conifers and rosemary scrub..turns to black when distance drains the colour away.
1994 Coin Collector Issue 8. 8 For over 167 years the Bank of England £5 note was a large uniface note printed in black on white.
4. The pupil of the eye; chiefly in black of the eye. Cf. white n.1 2. Now chiefly hist.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 189 Þese hauen in eueriche yȝe tweie blakkes.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. v. vii. 185 Þe blak of þe yȝe..settiþ in þe middel as a quene.
a1475 Dis. Hawk (Harl. 2340) f. 28 (MED), Yf An hauke be wele colowrde..þe blake of þe hye..must Acorde to þe sureyne.
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Eiijv, In the region of the blacke of the eye.
1565 J. Hall tr. Lanfranc Most Excellent Woorke Chirurg. iii. vi. 48 The Pupilla..is the blacke of the eye.
1616 Treat. Princ. Dis. Eyes in W. Bayley Two Treat. Preserv. Eie-sight (new ed.) vi. 47 When the white of the eye is so swollen vpon the blacke, so that a kinde thereof appeareth to hang forth, it is called Chemosis.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. viii. 53 As big as the black or sight of the eye.
1718 J. Chamberlayne tr. B. Nieuwentijdt Relig. Philosopher I. xii. 239 That black little Circle in the Membrane..commonly called, the Black or Apple of the Eye, becomes in a healthy Man smaller in a great Light.
1870 W. Wilson Bible Student's Guide (ed. 2) 17/2 Schultens supposes it has reference to the little image of a man that is seen in the black of the eye.
1911 P. Radin tr. L. Ginzberg Legends of Jews III. 217 You have the white of the eye and the black of the eye, and it is by means of this dark part of the eye that you are enabled to see.
1998 R. S. Jampel in M. L. Kwitko & C. D. Kelman Hist. Mod. Cataract Surg. 20/1 A needle with a sharp point, but not too slender, is thrust in a straight direction between the black of the eye and the external angle until it reaches the center of the cataract.
†5. A black creature. Obs. rare.The precise nature of the creature (a form assumed by the Devil) is unclear in the quot., although it is identified as a crow in the French.
[It is perhaps possible that this may show a different word, an otherwise unattested variant of bat n.1: compare forms and discussion at that entry.]
a1400 (▸c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 11863 Come fleyng oute, at here mouþe a blak [Fr. cornaille], Ryȝt as she þe wurde spak... Þat yche blak, y dar wel telle þat hyt was a fende of helle.
6. Italian Hist.
a. A member or supporter of the Neri, a political faction within the pro-papal Guelph party which was opposed to the Bianchi (the Whites, who later allied themselves with the pro-imperial Ghibelline party), in a feud which began in Pistoia at the end of the 13th cent. and later spread to Florence.
?1585 E. Aggas tr. E. de L'Allouette Catholicke Apologie ii. f. 83, He was declared..a perturber of the peace of the Church, as hauing molested all Italy, with the factions of the Whites, and the Blackes.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 474 The Donats hauing taken vpon them the protection of the Blacke, and the Cerchi of the White; Florence was wholy diuided into white & Blacke.
1680 C. Ness Compl. Church-hist. 428 The Guelphs..and the Gibellines,..the Black and the White (as those Two Factions were called).
1762 Mod. Part Universal Hist. XXXVI. iv. 51 Florence, in a short time, became as much divided between the Whites and the Blacks as Pistoia had been before.
1785 H. Boyd Hist. Ess. in tr. Dante Inferno I. 159 As both the whites and the blacks were only branches of the Guelfs, or old papal faction, Charles was honourably received by all.
1802 C. Wilmot Irish Peer on Continent (1920) 134 The blacks and the whites form'd opposite parties which totally disorganized the Republick.
1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 811/2 A quarrel had arisen in Pistoia between the two branches of the Cancellieri,—the Bianchi and Neri, the Whites and the Blacks. The quarrel spread to Florence, the Donati took the side of the Blacks, and Cerchi of the Whites.
1902 Academy 11 Oct. 390/1 Were you a White and for the people, or a Black and for the nobles?
1989 B. G. Harrison Ital. Days iii. 148 The victorious Guelphs split into two parties: the Whites, who sought to maintain the integrity and independence of the Republic, and the Blacks.
b. In Italy following unification: a supporter of the Vatican as opponents of the Italian monarchy; an advocate of the restitution to the Pope of sovereignty over territories formerly controlled by him. Now rare.In quot. 1861: a supporter of the monarchical party in the former Bourbon kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.
1861 John Bull 12 Jan. 19/1 At Naples and in Sicily parties will..be divided between the ‘Reds’ and the ‘Blacks’, the Mazzinians and the Bourbonists.
1875 John Bull 10 Apr. 235/2 The ‘Blacks’ and the Irreconcilables act wisely in their generation in avoiding the presence of the Princess Margaret of Savoy, for she is a spell to enchant the most sour papalino.
1903 Daily Chron. 20 June 3/2 His position is that known in Italy as ‘White’, or constitutional, as compared with the clerical ‘Blacks’ and the republican ‘Reds’.
1909 Daily Chron. 29 Jan. 4/6 Most of the skaters are of the Vatican party... ‘Black’ is the local name.
1928 Harper's Mag. July 203/1 Socially, they refused to mingle with the ‘governmentals’, and it was the supreme social error to invite a ‘black’ and an ‘Italian’ to the same dinner party.
2005 J. F. Pollard Money & Rise of Mod. Papacy iii. 78 The ‘blacks’ of Rome were not the only Catholic aristocracy to move from traditional agricultural and land-holding activities to building speculation and other commercial activities.
7.
a. A horse of a black colour.
1593 G. Markham Disc. Horsmanshippe sig. Gv, Of colloures these be the best, Browne daple bayes, Bright bayes, Daple grayes, or White lyards, or blackes.
1607 G. Markham Cavelarice ii. i. 4 Your perfire Blacke, your redde Sorrell, and your darke Chesnutte, are much graced, if for a mittigation of their fiercer complexions, they bee accompanied with any white markes.
1735 Sportsman's Dict. II. at Pye-bald Horse, Thus there are pye-bald bays, pye-bald sorrels, and pye-bald blacks.
1774 R. Cumberland Note of Hand sig. A2, Long-tail and bob-tail, blacks and sprightly bays, And filthy duns and old flea-bitten greys.
1846 J. J. Hooper Taking Census in Some Adventures Simon Suggs i. 153 Mounting our old black, we determined to give the old soul a parting fire.
a1861 T. Winthrop John Brent (1883) iii. 26 The black was within the corral, pawing the ground.
1932 J. G. Neihardt Black Elk Speaks iii. 31 Behind me came the horsebacks four abreast—the blacks, the whites, the sorrels, and the buckskins.
1983 P. Gzowski Unbroken Line i. 15 Greys, bays, roans, browns, blacks, and chestnuts... they are all, by the morning light, potential stakes winners, champions, legends.
b. A former breed or variety of heavy draught horse developed in England, occurring in various colours, and ancestral to the Shire and the Clydesdale. More fully Old English black. Now hist.
1796 J. Lawrence Philos. & Pract. Treat. Horses I. vi. 295 The breeds of cart-horses, most in fashion upon our island, at present, are the heavy blacks of the Midland counties, the Suffolk punches, and those of Clydesdale in Northern Britain.
1823 Farmers Mag. Feb. 50 The Cleveland Bay..[is] a distinct race from the English blood horse, and equally distinct from the black or cart breed of the country.
1833 tr. C. Malte-Brun Universal Geogr. (new ed.) IX. 171 The English draught horses are held in great and merited repute; the three best sorts are the Cleveland bay, the Suffolk punch, and the Old English black or Lincolnshire cart horse.
1883 R. Moreton On Horse-breaking (ed. 2) 81 The Lincolnshire dray-horse is..the produce of a cross between the old English black and the Flemish horse.
1983 V. Russell Heavy Horses of World 98/1 The breeding of the best of the 'Blacks' was centred on the Fens and adjoining areas such as Leicestershire and Staffordshire, and extending into Derbyshire.
c. A domestic pigeon of a black variety. Now rare.
[1735 J. Moore Columbarium 39 This Pigeon [sc. the Dutch Tumbler] affords a great Variety of Colours in its Plumage, as blacks, blues, whites, reds, yellows, Duns, Silvers.]
1839 New Sporting Mag. June 378, I prefer a blue before any other, as I have generally found them hardier and swifter than the blacks and duns.
1855 Poultry Chron. 2 515/2 A pen of short-faced bald head Tumblers, Blues, Blacks,..of rare quality.
1925 F. Warner in A. H. Osman Pigeons xi. 67 Blacks must be black, not brown-black or grey-black, but jet-black, with iridescent sheen on every feather from head to tail.
8.
a. A black speck, esp. a small particle or flake of soot, a smut. Freq. in pl. Cf. bleck n. 2. Now chiefly hist.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 331 They also haue litle blackes in the middle of their teeth.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. ix. 401 The trifling world around us so fills the air with infection, as the London smoke does with blacks, that we can neither keep ourselves nor our furniture tolerably clean.
1783 Ainsworth's Thes. Linguæ Latinæ (new ed.) i. at bean, The black of a bean, Hilum.
c1816 Young Woman's Compan. 196 Let the blamange settle before you turn it into the forms, or the blacks will remain at the bottom.
1843 F. E. Paget Pageant 84 She carefully covered over..any articles that were likely to be damaged by blacks.
1862 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Personal Relig. II. ii. vii. 28 The blacks of the world have settled down upon it.
1865 Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. xvi. 149 If you see a black on my nose, tell me so.
1910 E. Davies State Purchase of Railways (Fabian Tract No. 150) 9 If one keeps the carriage window open, one gets covered with blacks and dust from the execrable small coal that appears to be the specialty of this line.
1939 A. Gould Viaduct ii. 27 Day and night will be filled with the sound of rushing trains, and the air will be fouled with the smoke and blacks of coal.
1989 C. Palliser Quincunx xxix. 146 When I commented on how dirty our clothes were, my mother explained that it was caused by the London blacks from the coal burning in the many chimneys.
b. A deposit of dirt on the body, esp. under the fingernails. Also fig.
1684 J. Reeve Spiritual Hymns upon Solomons Song 15 There is a Sun can wake the day, Out of this dismal Night: Then shall my black be washed off.
1700 J. Stevens tr. Cervantes Don Quixote II. xliii. 247, I love the little black of the Nail of my Soul, better than my whole Body.
1753 G. Washington Diary (1925) I. 49 You say this land belongs to you, but there is not the Black of my Nail yours.
1860 J. P. Robson Song of Solomon v. 16 Aw ha'e wesht baith maw feet frae the black.
1889 Brighouse News 14 Sept., He weant pairt wi' t'black afore his finger-nails.
1952 M. Harris City of Discontent ii. i. 148 He plugs the sink and runs the water..and washes the black from his arms and his neck and his face.
2006 W. H. Henderson Augusta Locke 250 They couldn't wash the black from their hands, not that they gave it much of an effort.
c. In pl. A dark-coloured fungus which attacks cereal crops, esp. one of the genus Ustilago; a smut (smut n. 1a). Now rare.
1844 Farmer's Mag. June 618/1 In England it is best known by the names of blacks, brand, or burnt-ear.
1883 Good Words 735 Who has not observed the smut, or blacks, among corn?
1920 Weekly News Let. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 23 June 10/1 They discovered, also, that this same fungus is responsible for part of the heavy spoilage of canned corn, known to commercial canners as ‘blacks’.
9. A member of any dark-skinned group of peoples, esp. a person of sub-Saharan African or Australian Aboriginal origin or descent.See note at sense A. 3a for comments on the usage of this sense. In some contexts the noun is now felt to carry disrespectful overtones and is therefore avoided in favour of a phrase using the adjective, as ‘a black person’, or an alternative such as ‘an African American’.
1614 G. Cokayne Let. 24 Apr. in W. Foster Lett. received by E. India Co. (1897) II. 31 The 5th ditto came in a ship from Mollacco with 28 Portugals and 36 Blacks.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes ix. xiii. §1. 1570 The mouth of the Riuer [Gambra], where dwell the Blackes, called Mandingos.
1682 J. Bunyan Holy War 5 This Gyant was King of the Blacks or Negroes.
1705 W. Nicolson Diary 31 Dec. in London Diaries (1985) 344 Of the Origine of all Nations, from Noah and his Sons..he shews that all the Blacks (of Africa and America) sprang from the same stock with our selves.
1749 R. Poole Jrnl. 17 Mar. in Beneficent Bee (1753) 300/1 Among the Blacks in this Country are some that are called Obeah Negroes.
1789 George, Prince of Wales Let. 30 May in Ld. Cornwallis Corr. (1859) II. 28 The Adaulet of Benares..now held by a Black named Alii Cann.
1805 Ann. Rev. 3 289 They exclude from suffrage the blacks and the paupers.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 129 The free black does not, in general, feel himself superior to the slave.
1929 ‘A. Russell’ Bungoona 7 If I were to remark that old Blossom was a bungoona nanta I'd really mean to convey to you, in the lingo of the blacks, that Bloss was a jolly good old horse.
1968 J. Mayet in Drum Sept. 8, I sometimes get the weird sensation that to the Whites who sit in their offices dreaming up new gimmicks to harass us and deciding where they should kick us out of or into next, we Blacks are not even people.
2004 New Yorker 3 May 105/1 Those blacks who remained poor and disempowered were viewed as having failed to take advantage of their definitionally equal status.
10. A person who is characterized by black clothing or some other part of his or her appearance.
†a. A mute or hired mourner at a funeral. Obs.
a1625 J. Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) iii. i. sig. E4v, I doe pray ye To give me leave to live a little longer, Ye stand before me like my blacks.
1632 P. Massinger & N. Field Fatall Dowry ii. sig. E, Lila. A good dumbe mourner. Aym A silent blacke.
1779 L. MacNally Apotheosis of Punch iii. 36 You dumb blacks with mournful face, Instantly quit this joyful place.
†b. A black-haired person. Obs. rare.
c1686 Young Mans Comf. in Roxburghe Ballads (1872) II. 558 The pleasant Blacks and modest Browns, their loving Husbands please.
1823 ‘B. Cornwall’ Flood of Thessaly 218, I Have quite forgotten to describe the lady: Her name was Fohi, a brunette, and nigh A black.
c. Any one of a band of poachers who operated with blackened faces. Cf. Black Act n. at Special uses 5a. Now hist. and rare.
1722 Act 9 Geo. I c. 22 Whereas several ill-designing and disorderly Persons have of late associated themselves under the name of Blacks.
1845 H. Martineau Forest & Game-law Tales II. ii. 23 There is an alarm of the Waltham Blacks coming down upon the forest,—just as bad as last season.
1974 Hist. Jrnl. 17 483 What had singled out the Blacks, both in Hampshire and Berkshire, had been their tendency to deal in threats and their acts of reprisal.
11. Chiefly with the. Darkness, esp. that of night.
1683 I. Walton Chalkhill's Thealma & Clearchus 19 Night-swaying Morpheus clothes the East in black.
1793 European Mag. & London Rev. May 389/1 Can we e'er hope to change the black of night, And fill the rayless hemisphere with light?
1865 Macmillan's Mag. Oct. 475/1 Pricking nervously her ears at every flaw or rustle,..then with a snort of challenge plunging into the black of the hollows.
1899 B. M. Dix Hugh Gwyeth x. 169 Hugh answered stoutly, and, turning from the fire, faced into the black of the night.
1945 R. J. Casey This is where I came In xv. 76 Beyond him another German lay prone, peering into the black through a pair of night glasses.
1995 A. Warner Morvern Callar (1996) 206 My ankle skited away under me and I jabbed out a hand into the black.
2004 Uncut Mar. 48/1 The ‘wind began to howl’ and so does Hendrix's fretboard, shooting skyward and disappearing into the black.
12. In various elliptical uses.
a. Chess and Draughts. The player using the black or coloured pieces. Cf. white n.1 21.
1750 ‘A. D. Philidor’ Chess Analysed 87 The black playeth at present this Knight at his Bishop's third Square.
1822 J. Cochrane Treat. Game of Chess 192 On the Black taking the queen's knight with his bishop, the White must not retake immediately.
1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 52/1 Black's fourth move was a very bad one.
1886 Jrnl. Indoor & Outdoor Amusements 17 Nov. 125/2 Black could draw now by continuing to check with the Rook.
1957 I. A. Horowitz How to win in Chess Endings 52 White's King must move, after which Black picks off White's Queen.
2004 Chess Jan. 38/3 White's Houdini-like escape is achieved by making such cunning use of his eccentric pawn-formation that Black cannot usefully queen his pawn.
b. Gambling. The black colour in roulette or rouge et noir. Cf. red n. 1c.
1793 Faro & Rouge et Noir 62 The pontes or punters who sit round the table may stake their money on red or black.
1836 Amer. Monthly Mag. Oct. 400 You see the people put money on the table in its different divisions, here to bet on the red, or there on the black.
1868 E. Yates Rock Ahead III. iii. v. 178 I've won a little on the red and black here and there.
1928 M. Carol How to play Roulette iv. 56 The even money chances [in the game of rouge et noir] are Rouge or Red, Noir or Black, Coleur [sic] and Inverse.
1950 L. H. Dawson Hoyle's Games Modernized (ed. 20) 291 The tailleur never mentions the words ‘Black’ or ‘Inverse’, but always says that Red wins or Red loses, and that the colour wins or the colour loses.
1975 Way to Play 279/1 If the opposite characteristic (eg black) comes up, the bet is lost.
2008 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Oct. 24/2 Let's say you are playing the roulette wheel and you hit five reds in a row. Should you stay with red because black is ‘due’?
c. Archery. A shot which hits the target in the black ring surrounding the inner white circle.
a1818 E. Hargrove Anecd. Archery (1845) (rev. ed.) 148 Most centre blacks.
1859 H. A. Ford Archery (ed. 2) xiv. 117 The following is a St. Leonard's round, at 60 yards:—28 golds, 37 reds, 7 blues, 3 blacks.
1882 Standard 31 Aug. 6/4 The Vice-President's Prize to ladies for most blacks.
1908 Archer's Reg. 1907–8 149 Miss Barker presented a prize for the most blacks, which was won by Miss Bigland.
1992 L. Wise Bow & Arrow 246 Ties shall be resolved in favor of the archer with the greatest total number of Golds, then Reds, then Blues, then Blacks.
d. A black postage stamp.Recorded earliest (and most frequently) in penny black n. at penny n. Compounds 2.
1863 Stamp Collector's Mag. 1 Nov. 159/2 Penny black, 10d.
1890 S. C. Skipton Auction Epitome 1889 28, 1d. black sheet of 240, used.
1907 Daily Chron. 12 Dec. 6/6 A 12d. black of Canada, 1851.
1936 R. Graves Antigua, Penny, Puce x. 149, I specialize in the archetype and grandmother of all stamps—the Penny Black of 1840.
1970 Times 31 Jan. (Sat. Review) p. v/2 (advt.) Over 250 lots of One Penny Blacks, incl. all Plates, many with matched 1d. Reds.
e. In Billiards, Snooker, and similar games: a black ball.
1866 G. F. Pardon Billiard Bk. xiii. 209 If he pocket the black in either of the corner-pockets, he forfeits six points.
1949 Punch 9 Nov. 519/1 It misses the pyramid altogether and then..bounces off the top cushion to deal the black a glancing blow.
1978 Guardian 7 Feb. 20/6 Fagan then rushed a simple black with a straightforward clearance of the colours in prospect.
1988 I. Morrison Billiards & Snooker 40/2 Maximum, the compiling of the maximum possible break..by potting fifteen reds, each followed by a black, and then all the colours in the correct sequence.
2001 M. Richler On Snooker vi. 52 Taylor potted the black.
f. Printing. A blemish on a printed sheet caused by some movable part of the printing apparatus rising to the height of the type.
1882 Print. Times 15 Feb. 36/1 Blacks is a term applied to any mark on a sheet made by pieces of furniture, catches, etc. rising to the level of the form.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 93/2 Black (Typog.), a blemish on a printed sheet caused by a space or lead which has risen to the height of type.
1963 W. C. Kenneison & A. J. B. Spilman Dict. Printing, Black, a blemish on a printed sheet caused by leads or spaces rising to type height.
g. Baseball. [In reference to the black border sometimes formerly used on the home plate.] The (inner or outer) edge of the strike zone.to paint the black : to pitch a ball to the inner or outer edge of the strike zone.
1962 J. Brosnan Pennant Race 37 It was right on the black. So I bitched a little... And he gives me the third strike a couple minutes later.
1979 S. Lyle & P. Golenbock Bronx Zoo 76 He throws a hundred miles an hour and he's painting the black.
1987 S. Fiffer How to watch Baseball viii. 174 There is some discussion among the Seattle players about whether his fastball..is going straight over the middle of the plate or ‘catching the black’—the outer border of the plate.
1994 T. Boswell Cracking Show v. v. 103 Fastball. Right in your kitchen, up and in. In your face. On the black. It's the big pitch of the at-bat, so it's perfect.
2006 G. Gmelch Inside Pitch iv. 83 On pitching... If a guy is painting the black on you consistently, you know that's what he is trying to do.
†13. slang. Short for blackleg n. 4. Cf. sense A. 13b. Obs.
1826 in K. Laybourn Brit. Trade Unionism (1991) 26 You need not care for Blacks or Scabs, Jackdaws or Yellows.
1859 E. T. Hurlstone & J. P. Norman Exchequer Rep. (1861) V. 30 He said to the men, If you dare work we shall consider you as blacks, and when we go in we shall strike against you.
1861 Sat. Rev. 20 July 59/2 The lists of ‘blacks’, and the victims of the picket system.
14. slang. Short for blackmail n. 1b. to put the black (on a person) : to blackmail.
1923 E. Wallace Missing Million xii. 95 I've been paying ‘black’ for years.
1924 E. Wallace Room 13 iii. 38 Are you trying to put the black on me?
1928 E. Wallace Gunner xxiii. 190 I've never known you put the black before.
1951 J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge iii. iii. 561 Got a lovely pub..and yet wants to start putting the black on people!
2005 P. McIntosh Nicholas Feast iv. 75 If you want to know who else he was putting the black on, you'll have to ask around yourself.
15. orig. Services' slang. [Probably short for black mark n.] A serious mistake or blunder, esp. in to put up a black : to make a blunder.
1939 Flight 26 Oct. 335/2 Last week's special black. The ex-civil pilot..who thought that the ripcord of his parachute was a carrying handle specially provided by the kind manufacturers.
1941 Eng. Digest Feb. 38/1 A glaring error is a ‘black’. ‘I have put up a black,’ they will say.
1943 Word Study Apr. 6/1 Far from committing the black they expected, she showed great heroism.
1946 G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead xi. 142 One day she put up a black... She had fried our salmon in batter.
1985 Times 2 May 11/8 Once again it looks as if Cobb may have ‘put up a black’.
2007 A. L. Kennedy Day 49 Nothing was settled beyond Johnnie Bastard Hanson getting his way and putting up a black for all of them.
16. colloq. (chiefly Brit.). In the names of mixed drinks of the type —— and black: blackcurrant cordial.
1969 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 12 Sept. 6/5 The gin and orange contained no gin, and the rum and black was only blackcurrant.
1989 J. Burchill in Sex & Sensibility (1992) 111 We've started to realize we had more fun fifteen years ago getting legless on Pernod and black at Shitshire's hottest nite-spot.
1995 Face Aug. 90/1 The lager 'n' black drinks promo was an inspired move.
2007 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 11 Feb. 34/4 My student horizon was limited to where my next cider and black was coming from.
Phrases
P1. In similative and comparative phrases.For more established phrases, as (as) black as coal, one's hat, night, pitch, etc., see the nouns.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Bodl.) 24 Muche deale blackre þen eauer eani blamon.
▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) viii. l. 2904 A Paire of Bedes blak as Sable Sche tok and heng my necke aboute.
c1400 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Tiber. D.vii) i. xlix, in R. Morris & W. W. Skeat Specim. Early Eng. (1884) II. 236 A ys blak as gemmes buþ.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) xviii. sig. Ciii, [The water] was blacker than smythy water.
1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. (new ed.) f. 4, But as the hearbe Moly hath a floure as white as snow, and a roote as black as inck.
1600 Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. ii. 358 With drooping fogge as blacke as Acheron.
1694 tr. F. Martens Voy. Spitzbergen 166 in Narbrough's Acct. Several Late Voy., He is not as black as Velvet, as the Whale is, but like a Tench.
1752 G. A. Stevens Distress upon Distress ii. 88 Now grizly Night, thy pitch'd Tarpaulin spread, Black as the sooty Chimney-sweeper's Sack.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 188 Its skin is blacker than that of an Otter..; ‘as black as a Mink’ being a proverbial expression in America.
1886 Cent. Mag. Feb. 522/1 Tall, well-knit Senegalese from Cape Verde, black as ebony, with intelligent, kindly eyes and long, straight, shapely noses.
1923 National Geographic Mag. Jan. 52/2 There one sees pale girls, with fevered eyes as black as a raven's wing.
1974 D. Goines Swamp Man xii. 170 It's goin' be blacker than a witch's heart in a few more minutes.
2005 S. Saadi Psychoraag 168 The foetid, poundin rhythm, black as fishes' bowels, that emerged from lakes deep within the jungle ki kokh of Madya Pradesh.
P2.
a. black and blae: = black and blue at Phrases 2b. Now Sc. and Eng. regional (north.).
c1325 in K. Böddeker Altengl. Dichtungen (1878) 199 (MED), Blody stremes ronne þe fro þat þi bodi wes blak ant blo.
a1400 (▸a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 8073 Four sarȝins..Blac and bla [Trin. Cambr. blak and blo] als led þai war.
a1500 (▸a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xxii. 275 Bett hym blak and bloo.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum, Beaten blacke and bloo, suggilatus.
1718 A. Ramsay Lucky Spence's Last Advice 3 That curst Correction-house, where aft Vild Hangy's Taz ye'r Riggins saft makes black and blae.
a1796 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 72 Aft hae made us black and blae.
1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 88 Sad wights! wi' ribs baith black and blae Were harlit hame.
1868 J. C. Atkinson Gloss. Cleveland Dial. 48 He's getten his bats: his feeace's black and bleea wi't.
1903 G. Cunningham Verse & Prose i. 20 A'bruised and bluidy, black and blae.
2003 E. R. Anderson Folk-Taxon. in Early Eng. v. 173 The Northern dialect form, black and blae, preserves the Norse loanword.
b. black and blue: (of the human body) discoloured by bruises caused by beating, pinching, etc. Freq. in to beat (a person) black and blue . Also occas. as n.: such bruising or beating.
1568 T. Hill Arte Gardening (rev. ed.) ii. xviii. f. 76v, Ye black & blew of a striepe.
1593 G. Peele Famous Chron. King Edward the First sig. F3, My pate adle, mine armes blacke and blue.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. 141 He basted our shoulders with Cudgell-deaw, making the dust flie out of our Coates, till he had beaten our bodies all blacke and blue.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. ii. 143 Flew To rescue Knight from black and blew.
1690 London Gaz. No. 2577/4, His right Eye black and blue with a Blow.
1718 29th May, or, Restoration 14 [He] hit him also against the Pommel of a Chair, whereby His Majesty's Eye is black and blue.
1833 T. Hood Happy New Year in Comic Ann. 86 He's come home black and blue from the cane.
1883 ‘M. Twain’ Life on Mississippi iii. 61 Some raftsmen would rawhide you until you were black and blue!
1904 Dietetic & Hygienic Gaz. Aug. 473/2 It would more quickly remove the black and blue of bruises and contusions than any other remedy.
1929 Travel Jan. 13/1 If I return home empty-handed, my wife will beat me black and blue.
1990 D. Bolger Journey Home (1991) i. 20 You know, twice he caught me and leathered me black and blue.
P3. to say black is a person's eye (also eyebrow, nail, etc.) : to find fault with or blame a person. Now rare.
a1450 (▸c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) l. 2823 (MED), The riche and myghty man, thogh he trespace, No man seith ones þat blak is his eye.
1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. eiiijv, They eate their belies full, Every man as moche as he wull, And none sayth blacke is his eye?
1589 ‘M. Marprelate’ Hay any Worke for Cooper 36 If you were my chaplains once, I trowe John Whitgift..durst not once say blacke to your eies.
1675 T. Brooks Golden Key 362 He knew that the Law could not say, black was his eye, and that the Judge upon the Bench, would pronounce him righteous.
1720 Vade-mec. Malt-Worms 11 None can say that black's his eyebrow to him.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. ix. iv. 337, I defy any Body to say black is my Eye.
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) II. 2 ‘Thou cannot say black's my nail’..Cui tu nihil dicas vitii. Ter.
1879 E. Waugh Chimney Corner 61, I kept a shop, an' was well-to-do; an' I had frinds high an' low, an' was respected; an' divul a one could say ‘black's your nail’ to me.
1934 P. O'Donnell On Edge of Stream 191 I'd like meself to..have the pleasure of knocking down the man who'd say black was the white of his eye.
P4. black in the face: purple in the face through strangulation, passion, or exertion. Freq. used hyperbolically. Cf. blue in the face at blue adj. andn. Phrases 4.
1607 E. Grimeston tr. S. Goulart Admirable & Memorable Hist. 2 She was so opprest with paine, as she grewe blacke in the Face, like one that had beene strangled.
1646 H. Mill 2nd Pt. Nights Search xix. 117 Spits ill language at the Moon, and looks Black in the face with pride.
1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote Pt. 1 iii. i. 25 He would swear till he was black in the Face; Dissemble six long hours by the Clock.
1717 T. Lewis Scourge No. 35. 292 The Embroider'd Bully upon the Stage you obseve amusing the Gaping Croud with Folly, Nonsense, and Noise, bawling till he is Black in the Face.
1789 J. Wolcot Poet. Epist. to falling Minister 121 Swore himself black..in the face.
1836 Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) v. 47 Mr. Winkle pulled..till he was black in the face.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 67 Though we should boast..till we were black in the face.
1920 G. B. McCutcheon West Wind Drift vi. 76 He might apologize until he was black in the face and still be unable to take back the words he had uttered.
1991 Herald Sun (Austral.) (Nexis) 15 Feb., The peacemongers can meet and march until they are black in the face.
P5. colloq. (now offensive). to work like a black : to work very hard. Cf. to work like a nigger at nigger n. and adj. Phrases 1.
1842 Northern Star (Leeds) 4 June 8/1, I have worked like a black to-day, and yet I am as fresh as a four-year old.
1870 E. S. Maine Among Strangers xiii. 107 ‘I can work like a black, Miss Beckett, when I have anything to work for,’ said Evan, proudly.
1928 H. Graham World's Workers 18 While his workmen toil like blacks, St. Bees evades the Super-Tax.
1957 Punch 19 June 775/3 He worked like a black (if that phrase is still permissible) to produce a guide to French literature.
1987 P. Thomas Welsher ii. i. 58 Bridie is as quiet as the proverbial church mouse and works like a black into the bargain!
2005 Aberdeen Evening Express (Nexis) 13 July 6, I have to say I was pretty disgusted when I heard him say: ‘I didn't come here to work like a black.’ Did he think he was being funny?
P6. to fade (also go) to black and variants.
a. Of stage lighting: to go out gradually, leaving the stage in darkness. Hence (of a film or television screen): to go gradually dark. Also in extended use.
1918 R. H. McLaughlin Eternal Magdalene iii. 87 (stage direct.) Lights fade to black.
1969 P. M. Jensen Cinema Fritz Lang vi. 167 A man's figure materialises out of the haze and the screen fades to black.
1980 Advertiser (Nexis) 18 Jan., The screen goes to black as the ‘snap’ of the trap springing shut is heard.
1992 L. Kramer in S. P. Scher Music & Text viii. 144 After the opening forte attack, the Urklang gradually fades to black.
1997 Amer. Theatre July–Aug. 21 The light brightens and brightens, and then the music ends. The lights fade to black.
2006 UMass Amherst Fall 51 He opposes those who argue that the city [of New Orleans], because of its geography, should simply fade to black.
b. To cause stage lighting to go out gradually; to cause a film or television screen to go dark. Freq. in imperative.
1947 B. Emery Singapore Spider in L. A. Sposa Television Primer of Production & Direct. 144 Thanks for looking and [Good night!] fade to black.
1960 Punch 5 Oct. 491/2 Roll final credits and fade to black.
1988 S. Gray How's that for telling 'Em, Fat Lady? ii. 65 We'll go down to black while the rest of the furniture is struck or replaced—in fact, a conventional set change requiring a lengthy pause.
2011 P. Meehan Horror Noir viii. 182 The final shot shows Marion's car..being dragged out of the mucky bog. Fade to black.
P7. orig. U.S. in the black [from the practice of recording credit items and balances in a ledger in black ink] : in profit; having a credit balance. Cf.in the red at red n. 16.
1923 Wall St. Jrnl. 2 Feb. 13 Carter, Macy is now making satisfactory profits. Amsinck is operating in the black.
1940 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 44 734 With but few exceptions American air carriers are..operating ‘in the black’.
1990 Independent on Sunday 11 Feb. (Review Suppl.) 33/4, A guarantee that I will receive other payments within a fortnight that will put me £600 in the black.
2006 R. Ash New Spend Less Revol. iii. iv. 80 You could even consider a part-time job for a short while to get you back in the black and feeling rich again.
P8. black is beautiful: a slogan, popularized in the 1960s, which affirms the beauty and value of being black, esp. black ethnicity and culture. Freq. attrib.The slogan is sometimes said to have been coined by John S. Rock in 1858 ( Liberator 12 Mar.). Rock's speech promotes the idea that blackness should be celebrated, but does not use the slogan itself.
[1927 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 8 Dec. 3/3 Marcus Garvey made black people proud of their race. In a world where black is despised he taught them that black is beautiful.]
1964 N.Y. Amsterdam News 23 May 10/3 Malcolm X says, ‘Black be proud, for black is beautiful.’
1965 Liberation (N.Y.) Sept. 25/1 Radical blacks turn inward to united fronts and to ‘black is beautiful’ stated as an ideological principle.
1967 Black Panther 20 July 24/3 The hangup is that they have tried to sweep ‘Black’ under the rug for all these years and can't stand us digging ‘Black is Beautiful’.
1971 Black Scholar Apr.–May 15/2 These prisons boast Soul Shows, Black is Beautiful days, and bongo sessions in the yard.
1973 A. Dundes Mother Wit 231 In ‘The Language of Soul’ we find an important reversal in attitude, a reversal which is..in harmony with the general ‘Black is Beautiful’ philosophy.
1983 Washington Post 22 Sept. dc 1/1, I remember how black was beautiful 10 years ago and have since been struck with how abruptly the Afro was cut short.
2004 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 33 308 ‘Black is beautiful’... was less about the attractiveness of a particular skin color than about the advancement of black consciousness and pride that was central to the civil rights movement.
P9. orig. U.S. black-on-black: designating violence or crime in which both perpetrator and victim are black; (more generally) that occurs between black people.
1968 Chicago Daily Defender 16 Mar. 11/7 The violence of black man stabbing black man, mugging black man stomping black man, raping black woman. Black on black. And a black crime against a black gets cancelled out in the mind of a white precinct commander.
1974 Black World May 20/1 In turn, Black-on-Black violence has increased along with the incidence of Black violence against whites.
1998 Gay Times Aug. 84/3 (advt.) Second Time Around... The sequel to the black-on-black gay love story The B-Boy Blues.
2005 Northern Territory News (Darwin) (Nexis) 22 Nov. (Entertainm. section) 25 The story takes place against a backdrop of black-on-black violence.
Special uses S1. Parasynthetic.Compare the instrumental compounds of the noun at Compounds 1. See also black-backed adj., black-faced adj., black-headed adj., black-tailed adj., black-winged adj., etc.
black-aproned adj.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. v. v. 255 Meanwhile, the faster, O ye black-aproned Smiths, smite; with strong arm and willing heart.
1914 Atlantic Monthly Aug. 215/1 Here, he delights to catch the postman at work, or to meet the little boys pouring out of school, black-aproned and bare-kneed.
2007 Toronto Life (Nexis) June 132 Vintage French posters, exposed brick and black-aproned servers create an elegant bistro feel.
black-banded n.
1773 J. R. Forster Resol. Jrnl. 24 Jan. (1982) II. 218, I saw the blackbanded Petrels.
1835 Parterre 2 203 The black-banded turban of a cadi.
1909 Proc. Geologists' Assoc. xxxii. 793 At the top of the Harlech series rest a curious set of dark blue or black banded shales.
2001 Trop. Fish Hobbyist Apr. 161/3 A color variant of the regular black-banded bee shrimp.
black-bearded adj.
1577 S. Batman Golden Bk. Leaden Goddes f. 9v, Satvrne was portracted with a hoare head, but black bearded, & feeble footed.
1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. M5, No black-bearded Vigil from thy doore Beats with a button'd-staffe the poore.
1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women xxxiv, in Poems (new ed.) 130 The stern blackbearded kings with wolfish eyes.
1881 O. Wilde Poems 107 Grim watchmen on their lofty seats..strained black-bearded throats across the dusky parapet.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. 90 A tall blackbearded figure..stumping round the corner of Elvery's elephant house.
2000 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 16 Nov. 10/1 A thick-set, black-bearded, phlegmatic man, always to be found in his office tapping away at a slimline laptop.
black-bodied adj.
1651 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 211, I inclosed in a glasse some great black-bodied Spiders with short legs.
1857 Times 12 Mar. 2/1 (advt.) Also a black-bodied Newfoundland Retriever Dog, two years old.
2001 BBC Wildlife Sept. 24/3 These species are effectively as inconspicuous as the black-bodied gulper eels and dragon fish.
black-coloured adj.
1528 T. Paynell tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano Regimen Sanitatis Salerni sig. F iv, Blacke colered wyne.
1779 Philos. Trans. 1778 (Royal Soc.) 68 796 On the back part of the iris, or rather the posterior part of the aqueous humour, it was only covered over with the black coloured pigment.
1866 P. H. Lawrence tr. B. von Cotta Rocks Classified ii. iv. 338 Pyroschist..is..very bituminous and..dark-brown or black-coloured argillaceous shale.
1935 J. S. Lee Underworld of East (2000) xxxii. 141 One young fellow..suddenly started to vomit black-coloured bile.
2007 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 11 Apr. 5 The man..had short brown hair and was wearing a black-coloured sweatshirt.
black-cornered adj.
a1616 Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) v. i. 42 When the day serues, before blacke-corner'd night.
1876 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 29 Apr. 528/2 Von Tschudi..says, that a profligate coquero may be known by his foul breath, stumpy teeth, pale quivering lips, black-cornered mouth..and general apathy.
1996 D. Marlatt Taken 84 The place itself has disappeared into faded sepia, a flickering sequence of frames, of black-cornered stills.
black-favoured adj.
1681 London Gaz. No. 1668/4, A middle siz'd, Black Favour'd [man].
1830 W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peasantry I. 47 ‘Who is this coming down toardst us?’ said the black-favoured man.
1989 B. Hinton Heart's Clockwork 26 That night a figure rapped his door, black-favoured with a corpse's insistence and a crow's head, hooded.
black-framed adj.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, Queere-peepers, c. old fashion'd, ord'nary, black-framed, or common Looking glasses.
1858 A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 95 Little black-framed pictures.
1977 D. MacKenzie Raven & Kamikaze iii. 39 A black-framed oil of a Labrador.
2004 P. Biskind Down & Dirty Pictures iii. 91 Lipsky has an angular face and wore black-framed Mr. McGoo glasses.
black-garbed adj.
1767 N. Lardner tr. Libanius in Large Coll. Anc. Jewish & Heathen Testimonies IV. xlix. 141 Those black-garbed people, who eat more than elephants.
1892 Times 15 Apr. 5/1 This fine black-garbed battalion is to be quartered with its Regular comrades in the Rifle Depôt.
1921 E. Ferber Girls x. 209 Then she spied her, a draggled black-garbed figure.
2007 J. Sellers Perfect from now On vi. 69 Two black-garbed girls sat petitely watching the show.
black-gowned adj.
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. X2v, There was another black gowned Mountebanke that gaue most excellent contentment to the company that frequented his stage.
1778 Def. Theophilus Lindsey 6 The almost innumerable ranks of society, who..seldom, for fear of offending their mitred, surpliced, and black-gowned godships, look beyond a Creed or Catechism.
1845 Yale Lit. Mag. Jan. 122 Myriads of crown-shaven, black-gowned, knee-breeched, shoe-buckled, cocked-hatted and thin-legged priests, scuttling about.
1995 K. Toolis Rebel Hearts (1997) iii. 91 Rows of black-gowned bewigged barristers fiddled with their papers.
black-hafted adj.
1553 J. Locke Jrnl. 27 Aug. in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1599) II. 107 They did take a blacke hafted knife, and with the edge of the same did crosse the said taile as if they would cut it in twain.
1994 R. Jordan Lord of Chaos xxii. 335 He rode on,..the black-hafted spear thrust behind the saddle girth on the opposite side from his unstrung bow.
black-haired adj. [compare Old English blæcfeaxede dark-haired]
c1540 (▸?a1400) Destr. Troy viii. 3780 Telamon truly was a tulke full faire, Blake horit.
1657 S. Clarke Geogr. Descr. 154 They [sc. the Samoeds] are all black-haired, and beardlesse.
1771 E. Burke Speech on Jury Bill in Writings & Speeches (1981) II. 346 Whether a blackhaired man or a fair-haird man presided in the Court of Kings Bench.
1899 Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 26 256 Palpi and antennæ black, densely black-haired.
1992 I. Banks Crow Road (1993) i. 9 The tall and still dramatically black-haired Mr Blawke.
black-hilted adj.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xv. 409 Many a black-hilted faulchion huge of haft Fell to the ground.
1996 B. Cornwell Bloody Ground (2001) 180 The man wore a black hilted saber at his side, a weapon as crude as a butcher's blade.
black-hooded adj.
1751 S. Richardson Clarissa (ed. 3) IV. xlii. 258 The windows, the sign-irons and balconies (garrets, gutters, and chimney-tops included) all white-capt, black-hooded, and periwigg'd.
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VI. 437 Black-hooded Wheat-ear.
1946 E. A. Armstrong Shakespeare's Imagination ii. 23 The bat in folklore is the symbol of the black-hooded figure who has the last word in the drama of life.
2002 Time Out N.Y. 29 Aug. 150/2 A member of Tony's music staff once played in a band that opened for the legendary black-hooded thug-rockers.
black-hooved adj. (also black-hoofed (poet.))
1678 J. P. tr. J. Johnston Descr. Nature Four-footed Beasts ii. 37/2 The sides have black spots; footed like the goat, black-hoofed.
1876 Galaxy Mar. 318 But a black-hooféd beast with the head of a man Stole down where she sat at my side.
2002 Kenyon Rev. Spring 25 The brownish-pink flesh encased in a layer of glistening fat, the black-hooved legs tied together.
black-horned adj.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 128, The best [bullocks] commonly haue these properties: large, well knit, and sounde lyms, a long, a large, and deepe sided body, blacke horned, [etc.].
1606 T. Pierson in W. Perkins Combat Christ & Diuell (ed. 2) 1st Ep. Ded. sig. A2v, It may be he hath seene the plaiers and the painters Diuels, some blacke horned monster with broad eies, crooked clawes or clouen feet.
1728 A. Ramsay in Poems (1844) 60 The devil's..Appearing sometimes like a black-horned cow, Aft-times like bawty.
1834 Farmer's Mag. Oct. 452/2 Black-horned Highland cattle.
1912 Irish Rev. 2 207 It was a grand black-horned Eland, leaping like a horse.
2005 Oregonian (Nexis) 2 Dec. 8 An artiste in leather pants madly charcoals a sketch of a black-horned being with flames erupting from its head.
black-jacketed adj.
1857 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 27 69 Pale Chinamen and black-jacketed Shans.
1960 Duke Law Jrnl. 3 323 (note) A gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slackjawed, black-jacketed.
2009 Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Aug. a8 As the engines settled into idle, onlookers milled around the black-jacketed bikers and their machines.
black-lipped adj.
1614 J. Cooke Greenes Tu Quoque sig. C, We suck'd a white leafe from my blacke-lipp'd penne.
a1849 T. L. Beddoes Death's Jest-bk. (1850) iii. iii. 87 Swine,..for a smile, and kiss, and pout, I much prefer your black-lipped snout.
1971 J. Stidworthy Snakes of World 101 The Black-and-White Cobra (Naja melanoleuca ), also known as the black-lipped cobra and forest cobra, lives in Africa from Gambia in the west to Kenya in the east.
2009 A. S. Byatt Children's Bk. 184 Red and angry, black-lipped and uttering a desperate whimper, the child shot into the world.
black-maned adj.
1705 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 2) I. iii. 409 Three Thousand Mares did in his Marches feed, Whom Boreas cover'd like a black-main'd Steed.
1850 R. Gordon-Cumming Five Years Hunter's Life S. Afr. II. xxii. 112 The most magnificent old black-maned lion.
1872 J. S. Blackie Lays of Highlands 113 The black-maned clouds, like Furies on the wing, Skir past.
1998 Shutterbug's Outdoor & Nature Photogr. Fall 55/1 This caldera..is home to black-maned lions.
black-orbed adj.
1777 R. Potter tr. Æschylus Tragedies 143 Seven valiant chiefs Slew on the black-orb'd shield the victim bull.
1938 W. de la Mare Memory 73 Prowling, black-orbed, disconsolate, Questing antennae, quivering wing.
1999 V. Seth Equal Music (2000) iii. 103 A black-orbed clock shows two golden figures, a goddess and a young man.
black-plumed adj.
1675 E. Sherburne tr. M. Manilius Sphere 53 Corvinus! on whose Crest Phoebus does in his black-plum'd Emblem rest.
1735 Sportsman's Dict. I. at Hawk, There is a kind of swarthy, black plumed hawk, that is good mettle.
1857 Trewman's Exeter Flying Post 22 Oct. 6/6 He had always such a dislike to black-plumed hearses..that he would sooner ride miles than meet one of the sable equipages.
1998 J. Barnes England, England (1999) 249 The funeral was an affair of orotundity and black-plumed horses.
black-scarfed adj.
1869 Temple Bar Oct. 291 She sees the drooped pall and the black-scarfed mourners.
1917 D. H. Lawrence Look! We have come Through! 81 Black-scarved faces of womenfolk.
2000 N. Gage Greek Fire (2001) xxii. 516 Black-scarved village women holding bunches of wildflowers crossed themselves as the casket passed.
black-shawled adj.
1882 Cent. Mag. Jan. 321/1 There are many of them [sc. women] abroad at this hour, gliding with soft steps, black-shawled, or folded in dark rebozos , through the streets.
1929 R. Graves Poems 27 The black-shawled peasant woman.
2005 A. Bennett Untold Stories (2006) 560 As I was borne in on a stretcher, black-shawled ladies gazed down at me, raised their eyes to heaven, and crossed themselves.
black-skinned adj.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts viii. f. xxxiiiiv, An Ethiopian borne, blacke skynned, but one that shoulde sone after be clothed with a garment of a lambes flece.
1655 T. Moffett & C. Bennet Healths Improvem. xxiii. 226 Radish roots of the Garden (for they are best) are either long and white without, or round like a Turnep, and very black skinned.
1781 R. Harrington Philos. & Exper. Enq. 269 The human species, near the equator, should be quite black skinned, while those near the poles should be white skinned.
1835 Farmer's Reg. May 759/2 In general, the white skinned sorts [of potatoes] are fit for the table from August to Christmas—the black skinned sorts from October to May.
1986 Jrnl. Royal Coll. Physicians 20 117/1 Black-skinned individuals are protected from the damage caused by ultraviolet by the melanin pigment.
2005 Independent 24 June 13/2 A black-skinned apricot has been developed in California by crossing the fruit with a plum.
black-souled adj. (and n.)
1648 Mercurius Impartialis No. 1 6 A base perfidious, perjur'd, black-soul'd elfe, Who first destroy'd thy Countrey, then thy selfe.
1749 A. Hill tr. Voltaire Merope iii. iii. 41 Some black-soul'd Fiend, some Fury ris'n from Hell.
1840 W. Whitman Uncoll. Poetry & Prose (1921) I. 15 All lie earth's spreading arms within, The pure, the black-souled, proud and low.
1944 E. Blunden Shells by Stream 43 And forth from black-souled hurricanes Conjures glad day.
2003 P. Williamson Wages of Sin (2004) iii. 18 She wasn't sweet Remy anymore, but the red-lipped, black-souled vamp who picked up men, bled them dry, and threw them away.
black-spotted adj.
1545 T. Paynell tr. St. Bernard Compend. Treat. Well Liuynge xxvii. f. cxiiv, Therfore yf ye wyll wasshe cleane awaye youre blacke spotted sinnes.
1662 R. Smith (title) A Wonder of Wonders:..an Invective against Black-spotted Faces.
1768 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) II. 369 (heading) The black spotted sandpiper.
1884 G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals 468 The Atlantic Salmon, and the black-spotted species of the west.
1932 D. Gascoyne Rom. Balcony 9 A tattered projection of black-spotted leaves On a branch.
1995 Mother Earth News Feb.–Mar. 14/2 They are complimented by copper-red, black-spotted little butterflies called coppers.
black-stockinged adj.
1839 C. Otway Tour in Connaught viii. 180 He was overtaken..by a moon-faced, able-bodied person, the ample calves of whose black stockinged legs protruded from top boots.
1970 T. Southern Blue Movie i. i. 19 The same rear master-shot..of some cretin's buttocks thrusting halfheartedly into a dopey girl's black-stockinged honey-pot.
2003 C. Birch Turn again Home ii. 22 They watched her skinny black-stockinged legs, twisting and writhing crazily in the frenzy of a made-up dance.
black-stoled adj.
1758 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 434/1 Gloomy Spleen, and sullen Care! Of black-stol'd Night, and horrid Hydra born.
1815 Scott Lord of Isles ii. xxii. 66 The black-stoled brethren.
1973 Arion 1 188 From the absolution by a black-stoled Benedictine with aspergillum and censer..four gondoliers in their Sunday best brought the coffin through the Palladian doors of San Giorgio Maggiore.
black-striped adj.
1718 R. Bradley New Improvem. Planting & Gardening: Pt. 2 (ed. 2) vi. 126 The several kinds of Crocus which blossom in the Spring are the common Yellow and Black strip'd, the Yellow Dutch.., and the White sort.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 420 One of the most beautiful of our species is the ‘Black-striped Minnow’.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 167 She [sc. a goat]..reaches her black-striped face up like a snake.
2004 W. B. McCloskey Raiders ii. viii. 108 Fish bycatch included the thick, flat, black-striped ishidai they had eaten raw.
black-veiled adj.
1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 238 An house of blacke veyled Nunnes.
1768 P. Morant Hist. Essex II. 296/2 This religious house was founded, for Black veiled Nuns of the Benedictine order, before the year 1190.
1876 E. Jenkins Devil's Chain vii. 114 The woman..looked at the long, black-veiled figure of the mourner with respectful sympathy.
1906 B. von Hutten What became of Pam iii. i, A black-veiled nursing-sister.
2000 P. Petrone Embracing Serafina iii. 130 Damascus was a babble of sound and a whirl of colour: black-coated and black-veiled Moslem women; coiffured ladies in Western dress.
black-visaged adj.
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge Prol. sig. A2v, Let such Hurrie amaine from our black visag'd showes: We shall affright their eyes.
1710 London Gaz. No. 4695/3, This William Charlton is a black visag'd Man.
1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers I. i. 5 There was an odd, intelligent expression in their faces, as well as those of the black-visaged sheep.
2009 Embalmer Mar. 14/2 The six men entered a black-visaged van, the closed, windowless side of which hid them from view.
black-waved adj.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xiii. sig. K3, Styx, and black-wau'd Acheron.
1882 W. Allan After-toil Songs 15 Up on the wind-swept bridge the sea-beaten captain stood, Scanning the black rack's lour, which trailed on the black-waved flood.
1996 S. J. Ostrander Great Nat. Areas Eastern Pennsylvania lvi. 183 Barrens are also prime habitats for rare butterflies and moths, such as the..frosted elfin, and black-waved flannel moth.
S2. Similative.
black-looking adj.
1753 R. Sheils & T. Cibber Lives Poets Great Brit. & Irel. II. 290 A black-looking ugly son of a w—— , who had no money in his pocket.
1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xx. 328 He was a little, black-looking man.
1995 W. H. Turner Chesapeake Boyhood (1997) 104 We had often looked out into the Bay and seen large flocks of black-looking ducks which turned out to be scoters.
S3. Modifying colour words to form adjectives and nouns indicating a blackish shade of the colour concerned, as black-brown, black-green,black-grey, etc.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 156 Ferrugo, blac purpur.
1418 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 37 (MED), A Cloke of Blake russet.
1462 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1855) II. 254 (MED), Unum equum coloris le blak gray.
1554 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 282 Ane hors. blak-broune mowitt, with ane bell in the forrett.
1606 Edinb. Test. XLI. f. 314v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at Blak gray) xj bollis blak gray aittis.
1685 London Gaz. 2037/4 Stolen or strayed..a black-brown Gelding.
1757 tr. J. F. Henckel Pyritologia iii. 30 Suphur is observed to reduce the white metals, and the semimetals, as silver, lead, regulus of antimony, to black, or black-grey bodies.
1841 R. Browning Pippa Passes i, in Bells & Pomegranates No. 1 6/1 Its black-blue canopy seemed let descend.
1844 A. W. Kinglake Eothen xxvii. 387 A long, low line of blackest green.
1849 D. Campbell Pract. Text-bk. Inorg. Chem. 257 This oxide separates after some time as a black-green hydride.
1877 G. Nevile Horses xv. 105 A black-chestnut will clip the same colour he was before.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 180 The black-green skirts of a yellow-green old Mexican woman.
1995 V. Chandra Red Earth & Pouring Rain (1996) 127 The woman..was bleeding in several places, slashed in long black-red lines across the arms and white back.
S4. With adverbial force, esp. as an intensifier with negative connotations. a. With the sense ‘badly’, ‘severely’.black afraid and black angry are found esp. in the writings of Samuel Rutherford Crockett and John Buchan.
black afraid adj.
1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xli. 297 We are all black afraid, only—we do not all show it!
1910 J. Buchan Prester John v. 97 I'll admit the truth to you, Davie. I'm black afraid.
a1940 J. Buchan Sick Heart River (1941) iii. ii. 239 I'm afraid, black afraid of this damned country.
black angry adj.
1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders i. 3, I could have broken his head, for I was black angry at the senseless and causeless cruelty of the shooting.
1915 J. Buchan Salute to Adventurers iii. 47, I had been sore at my imprisonment, I was black angry at this manner of release.
1999 B. Teran God is Bullet 229 Bob knows her well enough from the way she's rocking back and forth on her boots and the turn her eyes take, getting black angry, that she's gonna blow.
black depressed adj.
1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. i. 24 His father was black depressed.
1991 Billboard (Nexis) 3 Aug. 1 The clove cigarette smoking, black depressed, psychedelic cool people who kept to themselves.
b.
† black babbling adj. Obs. babbling maliciously, slanderous.
1624 F. Quarles Job Militant sig. E3, Earths black babbling Daughter (she that heares, And vents alike, both Truth and Forgeries).
1647 R. Baron Εροτοπαιγνιον i. 13 Earths black babling daughter spred the pinions of swift wings, advanced her shrill trumpet, and fill'd the inquiring eares of Tripolis, with the relation of our journey.
† black boding adj. Obs. of ill omen, inauspicious.
1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fourth 3 Black-boding Man Receives, not suffers Death's tremendous Blow.
1841 Knickerbocker Nov. 433 The black-boding seal that tells of death.
1895 A. Lang in C.O. Murray Border Ballads p. xviii, The picture..is wonderfully vivid: the turf wall (fail dyke), behind it the knight slain in some Border feud, and the converse of the two black boding corbies.
† black fasting adj. Obs. enduring a very severe fast; cf. black fast n. at Special uses 5a.
1664 Floddan Field vii. 66 Black fasting as they were born.
1823 Scott St. Ronan's Well II. iii. 61 To sit for ten hours thegither, black fasting.
S5. a.
black-about adj. nonce-wd. black all around.
1876 G. M. Hopkins Wreck of Deutschland xxiv, in Poems (1967) 59 She to the black-about air..Was calling.
Black Act n. now hist. a severe law of 1723 (9 Geo. I. c. 22) against poaching, trespassing, etc. (cf. sense B. 10c).
1789 G. White Nat. Hist. Selborne 18 The Waltham blacks..committed such enormities, that government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the black act.
1809 T. E. Tomlins Jacob's Law-dict. (at cited word), A virtual repeal of the punishment inflicted by the Black Act.
1933 Amer. Hist. Rev. 38 247 The Black Act..made it a felony with the death penalty for anyone while disguised to kill deer illegally.
1999 M. Shoard Right to Roam iii. 121 The notorious Black Act of 1723 created fifty new offences punishable by death, but in fact few people actually went to the gallows for breaking the game laws and poaching, say, a single fish.
black Africa n. sub-Saharan Africa, characterized as inhabited or ruled predominantly by black people (and thus contrasted with northern Africa).Early use by white colonists, missionaries, etc., often had additional connotations of benightedness; either for this reason, or because of generally increased racial sensitivity, the term is now sometimes avoided as potentially offensive.
1789 J. Lowe Liberty or Death 49 Be not surprized, ye Amazons of France, if on reading ‘This day a female slave plunged herself into the sea and was drowned’ ye see the Amazons of black Africa, as fond of liberty as yourselves!
1858 Ann. Rep. Amer. Colonization Soc. 36 The black missionary to black Africa, like to like.
1887 H. S. Fulkerson Negro iii. 80 The country in Africa known on the map as Ethiopia, (meaning land of the scorched faces) is often confounded with black Africa, hence we sometimes hear the Negro called an Ethiopian.
1938 L. Hughes New Song 10 Torn from Black Africa's strand I came.
1975 E. Shils in H. M. Patel et al. Say not Struggle Nought Availeth 83 In Black Africa, between 1954 and 1970, they have increased the number of pupils in primary schools threefold.
2001 N.Y. Times 4 Jan. a16/1 Migrants entering Niger pass through Agadez, about 350 miles southwest, which..has served for centuries as a gateway between black Africa to the south and Arab Africa to the north.
black African n. and adj. (a) n. a dark-skinned African; esp. one who is a native or inhabitant of sub-Saharan Africa (cf. black Africa n.); (b) adj.of or relating to black Africans.
1633 W. Rowley All's Lost by Lust i. sig. B3v, Souldiers should be forward; looke yee I have bright steele for the blacke Affricans.
1710 W. Hume Sacred Succession 89 His Followers prevailing most in the black African Regions.
1787 O. Cugoano Thoughts & Sentiments on Evil & Wicked Traffic of Slavery 43 Bloody slavery carried on by the inhuman, barbarous Europeans, against the poor unfortunate Black Africans.
1891 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 7 Nov. 711/2 The descendants of a black African man and woman in America will perpetuate the negro type with marked persistency.
1969 A. F. Addona Organization of Afr. Unity 11 There are at least three types of ‘Africans’: the Arab African, the black African, and the White African.
2004 U.S. News & World Rep. 28 June–5 July 26/1 Accounts from dozens of refugees in Darfur..provide evidence of an organized campaign by Arab Janjaweed militias..to rid the Darfur regions of its 80 black African tribes.
black amber n. (a) = jet n.2 1a; †(b) = ambergris n. (obs.); (c) a dark-coloured amber.
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words, Geat, a sort of precious stone, otherwise called black Amber.
1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon iii. ix. 447 Some pieces of Amber-gris, (or rather black Amber, for it was of that colour).
1773 W. Lewis & C. Neumann Chem. Wks. Caspar Neumann (ed. 2) I. 384 There is a hard light sort [of coal] not staining the fingers..; capable of being polished, filed, cut, and turned... called Gagates and Succinum nigrum, jet or black Amber.
1871 A. Hope & A. Harvey Turkish Harems & Circassian Homes vi. 105 Yellow amber should be of the palest primrose hue, but there is another shade that is now much prized, namely, the black amber.
1886 Antiquiary 3 116/1 The electrical qualities of jet obtained it the name of black amber.
1932 G. C. Williamson Bk. of Amber 214 The ordinary phrase of Black Amber applied by dealers to Rumanite is misleading, because its colour value is a very high one.
2004 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 5 Sept. 1 Amber is on sale all over Lithuania, ranging from..the black amber we seldom see in the UK, to the pale yellow that is the most expensive.
Black America n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) the black population of the United States, esp. considered as a cultural or political entity.
1891 W. L. Clowes (title) Black America: a study of the ex-slave and his late master.
1973 Black Panther 10 Nov. 14/3 The peoples of the Third World look to Black America for support in their struggles.
2004 New Republic 15 Mar. 6/2 Al is positioning himself to be leader of black America.
Black American n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of the United States who is black; an African-American; (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating Black Americans.For discussion of this use of black in the United States, see note at sense A. 3.
1818 H. B. Fearon Sketches of Amer. 61 Black Americans are..practically and politically slaves.
1892 F. A. Durham Lone-star of Liberia i. 16 Mr. Frederick Douglass (who is a Mulatto) had for his first wife a Black American lady of full, unmixed blood.
1959 E. Muhammad Fall of Amer. (1973) i. 5 Here we are, upwards of twenty million Black Americans who have given their blood, sweat, and service for four hundred years in the vain hope that one day justice would be ours.
1971 B. Sidran Black Talk i. 13 One psychologist..has attempted to chart and analyze black American singing.
2000 A. Calcutt Brit Cult 95/2 It is often said that drum'n'bass is as distinctively British as hip-hop is black American.
2010 Ebony Feb. 14/1 The imprint Black Americans leave is deserving of celebration throughout the year.
† black-apronry n. Obs. nonce-wd. the wearers of black aprons, spec. the clerical and legal professions (cf. apron n. 2).
1832 M. O'Doherty in Blackwood's Mag. Oct. 427 The absurd etiquette which prevents [them] from following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry, and Black-leggery.
blackarm n. orig. U.S. a bacterial disease of cotton plants caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas malvacearum, characterized by angular black lesions on the stem and fruiting branches.
1902 Proc. 26th Ann. Meeting Georgia State Hort. Soc. 47 This form is sometimes known as ‘black-arm’ and sometimes does much damage to Sea Island and Egyptian cotton in South Carolina and Southern Georgia.
1931 Wellington (Texas) Leader 26 Mar. 8/1 In severe cases of black-arm, large patches of diseased tissue may completely girdle the stalks, which then break off.
1991 Biogr. Mem. Fellows Royal Soc. 37 285 R. L. Knight..had been employed..to work on the genetics of resistance to an important bacterial disease of cotton, widely known at the time as ‘blackarm’, but later referred to as bacterial blight.
Black Army n. [after German Schwarze Reichswehr (1923 or earlier)] now hist. (a collective term for) the militias established in the Weimar Republic after the First World War (1914–18) in order to circumvent the restrictions placed on the size of the German army by the Treaty of Versailles (cf. free corps n. at free adj., n., and adv. Special uses 2).
[1923 Boston Daily Globe 2 Oct. 23/7 The ‘Black Reichswehr’..—Nationalist groups which had nuclei throughout Germany for months—are now growing so fast it is no longer possible to control them.]
1924 Daily Mail 10 June 7/7 The term ‘Black Army’ is used first for members of the organisations who keep their arms in their homes, like the Swiss militia, or in carefully hidden arsenals, and, secondly, for troops who are organised in regular army fashion.
1945 Los Angeles Times 25 Sept. ii. 4/6 He gave assurances that the Reichswehr and the Black army would throw the Poles back beyond the prewar frontier.
1977 Central European Hist. 10 128 Rossbach..was an organizer of the ‘black army’ (commonly known as Black Reichswehr) which Saxony, Prussia, and Thuringia had encountered during their attempts to outlaw the racist German People's Freedom Party.
1996 R. Kimber & R. Kimber tr. K. Kreimeier Ufa Story (1999) xv. 174 Other advance troops of the ‘conservative revolution’—from the Free Corps to the Black Army of the Reich..—had long been prepared to march on into a Führer's state.
Black Australian n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of Australia who is black; an Australian Aboriginal; (b) adj. of or relating to Black Australians.
1863 Trans. Ethnol. Soc. London 2 253 In regions in which it [sc. nature] planted..the black Australian..there now thrives the White Man of Europe.
1883 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 5 [He] made some excursions in the interior of the mainland, in order to study the natives,..and throw some light on the..origin of the black Australian race.
1982 Peace News 15 Oct. 6/2 Since Black Australians can't get control of their own land,..a token piece of the white colony was being claimed temporarily.
1998 J. Kalb Theater of Heiner Müller vii. 136 Most of them are middle-class professionals doing the play in their spare time, not illiterate and impoverished outcasts, the usual depiction of Aborigines even in Black Australian theater.
2009 Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) (Nexis) 4 Oct., Siri in Amsterdam allows himself to be mistakenly identified as a Black Australian although he is no Aborigine.
black bag adj. [from the black bag in which equipment required for such an operation was typically carried] U.S. colloq. (now chiefly hist.) designating a covert intelligence operation carried out esp. by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, involving illegal entry into premises; esp. inblack bag job.Such operations were declared to be unconstitutional in the United States in the early 1970s.
1966 Los Angeles Times 23 Aug. ii. 6/6 The new man [to lead the C.I.A.] probably also ought to be an outsider (with no interest in covering up past mistakes or prolonging old quarrels) given to study and evaluation (rather than black-bag tricks).
1972 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 25 June a5/3 The abortive black-bag job of the Democratic National Committee headquarters by five yo-yos..has plumbed the very depths of outrageous activity.
2000 T. Clancy Bear & Dragon vii. 110 Now it's called ‘special operations’; back then it was a ‘black bag job’—and we weren't always very careful about getting a warrant.
black ban n. Austral. and N.Z. a prohibition which prevents work from proceeding, usually imposed by a trade union as a form of industrial action.
1970 K. F. Walker Austral. Industr. Relations Syst. vii. 224 The Broken Hill unions have employed all the various forms [of direct action]: strike, go-slow, black ban, [etc.].
1996 Sunday News (Auckland) (Nexis) 27 Oct. 19 Fire and progress almost ended the life of the theatre, but thanks to a union black ban which held up demolition and a multi-million dollar refit by local property developers, the Regent was saved.
2006 T. Bramston Wran Era App. 292 A two-year black ban by the Transport Workers Union starting in October 1976 torpedoed the pilot Regional Freight Centre at Tamworth.
black band n. now chiefly hist. a dark-coloured clayey stratum of iron ore occurring in the coal measures (esp. in Scotland) and containing sufficient carbonaceous matter for smelting; iron ore of this kind; usu. attrib., as black-band ore, etc. [The discovery of black band ore is normally credited to David Mushet. Compare:1855 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 3 Aug. 636/1 In 1801 he [sc. David Mushet] discovered, in crossing the river Calder,..a new vein of ironstone, called the Black Band, and ever since known in Scotland as ‘Mushet's Black Band’.
]
1811 Mem. Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. 1 497/1 (table) Black bands, with iron-stone.
1838 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1837 379 A seam of black band, at a depth of 15 to 25 fathoms under the splint, or fifth seam of coal, of the Lanarkshire basin.
1846 Fisher's National Mag. 1 173 The ‘Black Band Ore’ recently discovered at Ransh Gap in great abundance, is not known in any other section of the United States.
1903 Trans. Inst. Mining Engin. 22 108 As the blackband ironstone contains a considerable amount of carbonaceous matter, little or no fuel is added to the ruck.
1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. xiii. 191 These ores, even the ‘Blackband Ores’, consisting of alternate layers of coaly and ferruginous material, are not worked today.
2008 R. L. Lewis Welsh Americans ii. 62 John Lewis..recognized that the bottom of this little mine was not worthless blackstone but rather black-band ore.
black beauty n. N. Amer. slang = black bomber n.
1966 Boston Globe 27 May 4/2 The youngsters broke into laughter..at the pathetic descriptions of teen-agers who have gone berserk under the influence of near death-dealing doses of sleeping tablets, cough syrups, pep pills, ‘black beauties’, [etc.].
2003 A. Franken Lies xxix. 240 Wakey-wakeys. You know, pep pills, black beauties.
black beer n. (a) any of various beers which are very dark in colour, esp. from the use of roasted malt in the brewing process; (b) a dark and syrupy beer, traditionally made using the leaves and branches of the spruce tree.
1678 J. Browne Compl. Disc. Wounds xiv. 77 And for this Use Sperma Ceti, black Beer, Pulv. ad Casum, and the like, being taken inwardly, are good and proper.
1799 Hull Advertiser 15 June 1/3 For sale... Spruce or black beer, in kegs and half kegs.
1894 Act 57 & 58 Vict. c. 30 §25 The duties of Customs now payable on beer of the descriptions called mum, spruce, or black beer, imported into Great Britain or Ireland.
1992 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 9 June 9 A Yorkshire drink known as black beer. This syrupy drink..is normally mixed with milk or lemonade before it is drunk.
2009 J. Mcllvain et al. Fodor's Patagonia iii. 102 Black beer is suggested with smoked meats.
Black Beret n. chiefly in pl. (a) a member of any of various elite military units having a black beret as part of their uniform; (b) a member of any of various militant groups distinguished by the wearing of a black beret.
1966 N.Y. Times 28 Dec. 3 (caption) Black Berets, members of the Navy's corps of guerrilla fighters, take part in simulated mission.
1971 G. MacEóin Revol. Next Door vii. 168 Mora is a Black Beret, the Chilean version of the Green Berets.
1972 N. R. Pierce Mountain States of Amer. 282 City officials..showed great reluctance to confer with the leading local militant group, the Black Berets, a ‘brown power’ organization.
1991 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 20 Jan. 3 b, If legislators balk, his [sc. Gorbachev's] Black Berets can surround the Supreme Soviet and conduct a Pride's purge.
2006 L. Pulido Black Brown Yellow & Left ii. vi. 167 Other organizations were influenced by and emulated the BPP. Such groups include the aim,..the Red Guard, and the Black Berets.
black betty n. U.S. (now hist. and rare) a liquor bottle or jug made of dark glass; cf. Betty n. 3.With quot. 1737 see to kiss the cup at kiss v. 6b.
1737 B. Franklin Drinker's Dict. 13 Jan. in Papers (1960) II. 174 A Man is drunk... He's kiss'd black Betty.
1835 N. Ames Old Sailor's Yarns xviii. 277 If you've got any white-eye in that black betty,..I don't much care if I take a drop.
1880 in C. T. Greeve Cent. Hist. Cincinnati (1904) I. 463 They didn't forget to pass the old ‘black betty’, filled with good old peach brandy.
1992 J. M. Faragher Daniel Boone i. ii. 43 The rowdies who gathered on the wedding morning, passing the jug (‘Black Betty’).
black bile n. see bile n. 3.
black bill n. now hist. a type of halberd with a black head; cf. bill n.1 2a.
1480 Bill of Expenditure in Mariner's Mirror 64 (1978) 233 Iiij blake bills, v shepp sperys, v long bowys..xij bow strynges.
1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres i. 5 Thus much..to our inueterate conceiters of bowes and blacke billes.
1688 A. Pulton Some Reflections 8 A Band of Bully Scholars, marching under ground with their Black-Bills.
1839 Short Hist. Tower of London 26 The bill, and the English black bill, are very ancient arms, and were those principally used by the infantry before the introduction of the pike.
1908 B. E. Sargeaunt Weapons ii. 24 Certain weapons were termed ‘brown-bills’ or ‘black-bills’ on account of the colour of the material put on the metal to preserve it.
2007 L. Brittney Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times (2008) v. 76 There are rapiers.., battle axes, black bills.
black blizzard n. N. Amer. (now chiefly hist.) a severe dust storm on the North American prairies.
1895 R. W. Furnas Ann. Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric. 76 The severe dust storm, called the ‘black blizzard’, which prevailed over the state.
1934 Los Angeles Times 29 Apr. i. 21/1 Black blizzards sweeping over the Middle West are menacing crops in huge areas of the ‘world's bread basket’.
2007 Oklahoman (Nexis) 16 Oct. 1 e, Black blizzards of the Dust Bowl brought ‘dust pneumonia’ to the Panhandle.
black bog n. now chiefly hist. a bog of a deep brown to dark black colour, typically composed of heavy, compact material; land consisting of such a bog; freq. contrasted, esp. in Ireland, with red bog.
1739 Dublin Society's Weekly Observ. 1 122 Black Bogs yield some Kind of Pasture, of a finer or a coarser Grass, according to the Nature of the Bog.
1772 H. Brooke Brief Ess. on Nature of Bogs 6 There is another kind of Bog called black Bog, and this is readily reformable, at small cost and trouble, into the most prolific of all sorts of Soil.
1814 4th Rep. Commissioners Bogs Ireland 127 in Parl. Papers 1813–14 (H.C. 131) VI. 167 These bogs do not form one continuous mass of red bog, but are connected together by intervening tracts of black bog.
1864 Once a Week 18 June 706/2 In Ireland alone there are nearly a million and a half of acres of red and black bog, and a million and a quarter of mountain bog.
1900 S. Baring-Gould Bk. Dartmoor i. 7 Here may be found Cranmere Pool, which is now no pool at all, but just a small piece of bare black bog.
1996 J. Feehan & G. O'Donovan Bogs of Ireland ii. 39 There was a difference of opinion [in the 19th century] as to whether it was more remunerative to reclaim red or black bog.
black bomber n. slang a black capsule or tablet containing a mixture of amphetamine drugs; (sometimes) spec. a Biphetamine capsule.
1963 Times 22 Aug. 17/2 Drugs named in the various charges included ‘purple hearts’, soneryl, methadrine, and ‘black bombers’.
1964 Lancet 29 Aug. 452/1 The preparations in circulation apparently included ‘black bombers’ (‘Durophet’, a mixture of the two amphetamines).
2003 Independent 22 Dec. (Review section) 5/2 We all smoked dope, and we all took uppers—Black Bombers and Purple Hearts—particularly on Friday and Saturday nights.
† black bowl n. Obs. a tar-coated, leather drinking bowl; cf. black jack n.2 1.
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure xxix. 136 He never dranke but in a fayre blacke boule.
1568 U. Fulwell Like will to Like sig. B.iiii, From morning til night I sit tossing the black bole.
1651 in J. Taylor Ale ale-vated into Ale-titude 20 Body and Soule may blesse the Black bowle.
1856 G. Gilfillan Hist. Man i. 36 On returning to the house, there was a new set of hero-and-toddy-worshippers arrived; the black bowl was again produced, and Burns' mood was changed accordingly.
black bread n. [compare post-classical Latin panis niger (1283, 1338 in British sources), Middle French, French pain noir (1343)] a coarse dark kind of bread, esp. any of various types of dark rye bread.
1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints l. 9911 Blak brede..In hote watyr moystyd..she eet.
1484 Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) cxxxiiii. 178 They..ete black brede and metes of lytyll sauoure.
1596 T. Danett tr. P. de Comines Hist. viii. vii. 340 Two daies I ate nothing but naughty blacke bread: yet was I none of those that stood in most neede.
1635 W. Saltonstall tr. G. Mercator Historia Mundi 551 Their [sc. the Westphalians'] food is blacke bread and cheese: their flesh meate is Porke, hung Beefe, and Bacon.
1765 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy VII. viii. 29 He had lost five minutes already, in alighting in order to get at a luncheon of black bread.
1820 T. Hodgskin Trav. in North of Germany I. 306 The celebrated pumpernickel, a black bread made of rye, with nothing separated from it but the husks of the grain.
1933 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 3 Aug. in Locked Rooms & Open Doors (1974) 72 Mrs. Rasmussen's lunch is very good: sardines on black bread with a little oil paper laid on top to keep it moist.
1977 T. Kilroy Talbot's Box (1979) 21 Mondays only the black bread and the black tay.
2008 Gold Coast (Australia) Bull. (Nexis) 2 Jan., Black bread, sausages, fried eggs and cucumber pickles rinsed down with a cup of strong, hot tea is more of the breakfast trademark in Russia.
black brigade n. freq. humorous (a) a group of members of the clergy, esp. one likened to a military unit; the clergy considered collectively; (b)(with capital initials) (a nickname for) the Church Parliamentary Committee, a group of Conservative Members of Parliament formed in 1892 to oppose disestablishment of the Church of England (now hist.).
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza v. 125 The black Brigades, that did on Rome depend, Assert her Power, and impious Cause defend.
1881 Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 393/1 Cassidy..ostentatiously kept away from mass, and inveighed against the ‘black brigade’.
1895 Daily News 20 May 4/7 The Welsh Church Bill will have no better chance with the Peers for being left to the tender mercies of the ‘Black Brigade’ until they are tired of the struggle.
1907 A. S. T. Griffith-Boscawen Fourteen Years Parl. vi. 65 The Church Parliamentary Party (or Black Brigade, as we were now jocularly styled) were well to the fore.
1987 G. I. T. Machin Politics & Churches in Great Brit., 1869 to 1921 v. iv. 210 Opposition in Parliament was later shown particularly by the Church Parliamentary Committee or ‘Church Party’ (or the ‘Black Brigade’ to its opponents).
1994 R. M. Crunden Brief Hist. Amer. Culture (1996) i. 26 The passions of these years would have been hard to sustain without the black brigades of Congregationalist clergy urging their flocks into something very close to a political Armageddon.
Black British n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. (with pl. concord) British people of black (or non-white) ethnic origin, identified as a distinct social and cultural group (cf. Black Briton n.); (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating this group.
1966 R. B. Davison (title) Black British: immigrants to England.
1979 Guardian 5 June 8/5 In Britain, there's still little reggae..that deals with the black British experience.
1987 C. Phillips European Tribe xiv. 125 The crisis of a second-generation black British community..will deepen in direct proportion to the vigour with which Britain tries to ignore the gross inequity of opportunity.
2003 K. Kwei-Armah Elmina's Kitchen i. i. 15 (stage direct.) Although black British, she too swings into authentic, full-attitude Jamaican at the drop of a hat.
2004 R. V. Arana in R. V. Arana & L. Ramey Black Brit. Writing ii. 20 From England, we learn that the English-English are suffering an identity crisis..while the black British are feeling ‘centered at last’.
Black Briton n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) a Black British person (see Black British n. and adj.).
1971 P. Haikin (title) Black Britons.
1975 S. Selvon Moses Ascending 21 Blessed be the coming of this new generation of Black Britons... It is a sight for sore eyes to see them flounce and bounce about the city, even if they capsize on their platforms and trip up in their maxis.
1999 B. Crick in R. English & C. Townshend State ix. 226 It is significant that fellow citizens from the new Commonwealth call themselves..‘Black Britons’ or ‘Black British’, but rarely if ever ‘Black English’, ‘Black Welsh’ or ‘Black Scots’.
2002 C. Williams Sugar & Slate 2 A second generation black Briton.
black bun n. a rich fruit cake in a pastry case, eaten esp. in Scotland at New Year; cf. hogmanay cake at hogmanay n. Compounds.
1898 J. L. Waugh ‘Mumper’ 104 I'se warrant ye hae nae black bun or currant loaf to first-fit wi'.
1958 Spectator 30 May 698/2 We could have done with something more like a haggis and less like a black bun.
1992 I. Rankin Good Hanging 190 New Year was the time for celebration, for first-footing, black bun, madeira cake, coal wrapped in silver foil.
black butter n. (a) a thick preserve made from fruit, esp. apples; cf. apple butter n. at apple n. Compounds 2; (b) butter browned in a pan and mixed with vinegar (or lemon juice) and parsley to make a sauce used esp. for fish; cf. beurre noir at beurre n.2
1775 C. Mason Lady's Assistant (ed. 2) 420 Black Butter. Three pounds of fruit, (viz. currants, gooseberries, rasberries, and cherries) to one pound of sixpenny sugar boiled till it is quite thick.
1808 J. Austen Let. 27 Dec. (1995) 160 Our Black Butter..was neither solid nor entirely sweet... Miss Austen had said she did not think it had been boiled enough.
1824 London Mag. Aug. 180 They [sc. the French] eat a Ray fried in black butter.
1906 Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. (rev. ed.) x. 273 Black Butter Sauce. Ingredients—1½ ozs. of butter, 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley, ½ a teaspoonful of vinegar.
1962 Listener 23 Aug. 299/1 Serve them [sc. mackerel] hot with black-butter sauce. To make the sauce..melt 2 ounces of butter until it is dark brown but not burnt, and then throw chopped parsley into it and let it fry for a few seconds only.
1994 Independent on Sunday 9 Jan. (Review section) 39/3 Black Butter, which you can buy in Jersey. It's a treacly paste made from slowly boiled-down, caramelised apples.
2004 Independent (Tabloid ed.) 8 Dec. 5/1 Skate Also a traditional fish restaurant favourite, more recently turning up pan-fried (with black butter or capers) and poached.
black cab n. a black taxicab; (now usually) (Brit.) a type of taxi, originally and usually (but now not always) black, which may be hailed in the street and can accommodate up to five passengers in the rear, separated from the driver's seat by a partition (officially called Hackney cab); cf.minicab n.
1914 Cosmopolitan May 856/1 A moment later she entered a taxi-cab. ‘Follow that black cab,’ said Kennedy, to our driver.
1971 New Society 16 Sept. 499/3 Drivers of black cabs know they risk losing their licence if they should get into trouble.
1993 I. Welsh Trainspotting 5 We wir here first, Sick Boy sais, opening the taxi door.—Thir's another yin coming. He gestured up the Walk at an advancing black cab.
2009 Private Eye 18 Sept. 22/1 And now they're teaching him how to be a cab driver, driving round London in a black cab.
Black Canadian n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of Canada who is black; (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating Black Canadians.
1968 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 53 284 How do black Canadians differ from black Americans?
1972 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 401 186/1 The Blacks in Canada surveys the entire field of Black Canadian history from the Maritime Provinces to the Pacific Coast.
1987 Ebony July 22/3, I am a Black Canadian female studying law.
1996 R. W. Nelson in B. Schissel & L. Mahood Social Control in Canada xvii. 381 Many Black Canadians and African Americans find themselves dealing with ‘the oreo question’ of how to make it through the White-dominated school system while maintaining ties to their culture and local community.
2003 D. B. Nurse What's Black Critic to Do? 150 Kate is white, Jewish and from England. Diane is black Canadian.
black canon n. [from the colour of the habit worn; compare post-classical Latin canon niger (c1220)] now chiefly hist. a canon regular of St Augustine (see note at canon n.2 1).
1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints l. 137 (MED), In an old pryory Of blake chanons, hyr oo foot is.
a1525 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1923) I. 248 About the quhilk tyme sanct Austyne..began the ordour of blak channonis.
a1672 A. Wood Life (1848) 156 The abbey there, originally built for Black Canons.
1722 J. Stevens Addit. Dugdale's Monast. II. 69 By reason of their black Habit, worn over their white Surplices..generally call'd either Black Canons, or Canons of St. Augustin.
1850 Sketches Grange & Neighbourhood vii. 75 There was an hospice also, and the black canons were..ready to give the traveller spiritual counsel.
1996 Holiday Which? Mar. 100/1 Bolton Abbey marks the gateway to the dale and was home to the Black Canons—Augustinian monks who followed vows of poverty and chastity—until the Dissolution.
black carbon n. a black particulate form of pure carbon, typically resulting from the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material and forming the main constituent of soot.
1825 Philos. Mag. 66 291 Strong sulphuric acid, employed under similar circumstances, leaves, besides the graphite, black carbon easily combustible.
1889 Amer. Naturalist 23 1010 In this meteor were also found hydrocarbons and small grains of black carbon.
1934 Pop. Sci. Monthly Nov. 57/1 The zinc in burning combines with the carbon tetrachloride to form zinc chloride and particles of black carbon.
2009 Observer 4 Oct. 17/4 Soot from developing countries is a largely unappreciated cause of rising temperatures. Once the black carbon lands on glaciers, it absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected.
black caucus n. U.S. a political group or organization (often a sub-grouping of a larger body) composed of African-Americans and aiming to promote the interests of black people; spec. (with capital initial) (more fully Congressional Black Caucus) that composed of black members of Congress.
1964 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 29 233/1 A relatively new organization, the all-Negro Trade Union Leadership Council (TULC), constitutes a ‘black caucus’ of approximately 9,000 Negroes.
1971 Washington Post 20 May a13/1 The President's response to the congressional Black Caucus should stand as a comprehensive statement of ‘where we are at this moment.’
1989 B. Spock & M. Morgan Spock on Spock xiv. 173 The black caucus..absented themselves from the conference and effectively stalled it for two days while they formulated their ‘nonnegotiable demands’.
2003 B. McKibben Enough (2004) iv. 195 The endless meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus.
† black character n. Obs. = black letter n.
1659 Censures of Church Revived 221 This book, that is also printed in a large black Character, after the manner of the Statutes.
1751 Johnson Rambler No. 177. ⁋6 Books..printed in the black character.
1827 Eclectic Rev. Mar. 223 The MS. is a small quarto of vellum, in old French, finely written in the black character, and richly illuminated.
black chocolate n. chocolate made without the addition of milk; = dark chocolate n. at dark adj. Additions.
1902 Mansfield (Ohio) News 16 Oct. 8/3 (advt.) They [sc. Boston chocolate crackers] are a dainty little oval shaped sugar cracker, dipped in finest black chocolate.
2009 J. McGannon & M. McGannon Business Leader's Health Man. ii. 74 Black chocolate can thin your blood, like red wine or aspirin.
black church n. any church having a predominantly black congregation and leadership; (with the) such churches considered collectively as a religious and cultural entity.
1963 Chicago Defender 16 Nov. 9 The Birmingham police who purposely turned their backs while the white terrorists bombed black churches.
1971 B. Sidran Black Talk i. 23 The black church instigated the split between middle-class and poor blacks.
1992 Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N. Carolina) 2 July 3/1 The book documents the hymnological tradition of black churches in America.
2008 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 17 July 21/2 Secular leaders who had no interest in religion were nevertheless very much influenced by the black church's emphasis on the redemptive power of suffering.
black coat n. a person who wears a black coat as the typical dress of a particular occupation (see black-coated adj.); spec. a clergyman, a parson (depreciative).
1616 T. Granger Pauls Crowne of Reioycing 6 Many protestant Atheists, and Epicures..hate and deride the very name of a Preacher, and cannot looke on a blacke coate, (as these blacke mouthed hell-hounds terme them) with a patient eye.
1711 Swift Examiner No. 26. 165 He delights to have his Table filled with Black-Coats, whom he uses as if they were Gentlemen.
1818 Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xiii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. 300 You are the black-coat's son of Knocktarlitie.
1870 R. W. Emerson Society & Solitude ix. 197 The black-coats are good company only for black-coats.
1940 Archit. Rev. 87 110/1 Both these sorts of public house are essentially working class; the blackcoat's pub is another sort of place.
1995 S. S. Webb Lord Churchill's Coup (1998) ii. iv. 135 The red coats and the black coats were uniting against him.
black-coated adj. wearing or having a black coat; spec. designating a clerical or professional person as distinguished from one engaged in an industrial or commercial occupation; (hence) of or composed of persons engaged in such occupations.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. xxxix. 251 The blacke coated pompion.
1652 J. Ferriby Lawfull Preacher ii. 5 Those who thus labour in the Lord, and are thus highly to be esteemed, are not the Black-coated Ministers, Ordained by men, furnished with learning at the Universities.
1774 Satires on Priestcraft ii. 67 That brother not, like you devoted To ev'ry tyrant Priest black-coated.
1893 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 14 Apr. 506/1 The young fellow who will devote himself to agriculture..in New Zealand..may do even better than the youth who wins his way to the black-coated servitude of a bank.
1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase i. 12 He can't be a fisherman or anything of that kind; they don't waste time snoozing. Only the black-coated brigade does that.
1993 J. Pournelle & S. M. Stirling Prince of Sparta 99 Close to the ranch headquarters they saw black-coated Angus cattle.
black code n. chiefly U.S. (now hist.) any of various legal codes applied to black people; esp. each of the bodies of laws restricting the civil rights and liberties of black people that were enacted in the Southern United States following the Civil War.Quot. 1749 refers to the 1685 edict of Louis XIV of France later known as the Code Noir [after French code noir (1723 or earlier)] .
1749 M. Postlethwayt Diss. Universal Dict. Trade 22 The ordinance commonly called in the French islands of America, The Black Code, it containing the laws to be observed in respect to negroes.
1840 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 30 July 2/1 A black man..[will] be tried before Judge Preval, under the Black Code.
1876 Congress. Rec. 9 Aug. 5347/2, I hold in my hand the laws of the Legislature of South Carolina passed in the session of 1865–'66... Among the very first acts that they passed was the act which is known all over this country and all over the world as the ‘black code’ of South Carolina, a code that should disgrace every one of its authors.
1960 H. Carter in First Person Rural (1963) xvi. 154 South Africa's system of residential and occupational passes and other onerous restrictions upon the African's movements are little different from the Black Codes with which the fearful South of Reconstruction enmeshed the Negro freedman.
1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 6 Nov. 54/1 White Southerners set out to restore a racial oligarchy, bulwarked by the notorious ‘Black Codes’ that were close to slavery.
black coffee n. [compare French café noir (1808 or earlier)] coffee served without milk or cream.
1796Black coffee [see sense A. 2e].1818 C. I. Latrobe Jrnl. Visit S. Afr. v. 86 Some black coffee without milk, as is here the fashion, was handed round.
1867 S. W. Baker Nile Tributaries ix. 220, I..sat down..to good curry and rice, and a cup of black coffee.
1913 Lancet 29 Nov. 1563/2 Coffee is often made with a generous proportion of the powdered bean as in the case of after dinner ‘black’ coffee, the view being that the secret of good coffee is to make it strong.
1940 W. H. Auden Another Time 77 Kept awake with black coffee.
2003 Daily Tel. 8 Jan. 18/1 Taking a slug of black coffee and eating a doughnut.
black consciousness n. (freq. with capital initials) awareness of one's identity as a black person; spec. such awareness as a political and cultural means of seeking to unite black people in affirming their common identity and interests.
1935 N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 June 24/5 A program to create an international black consciousness through the medium of a world-wide organization.
1953 F. Henriques Family & Colour in Jamaica iii. 62 The current expositors of black consciousness in Jamaica are a group of people who call themselves Ras Tafarites.
1966 I. A. Baraka Home 241 Malcolm X's great contribution..was to preach Black Consciousness to the Black Man... Malcolm talked about a black consciousness that took its form from religion.
1991 Guardian 13 May 1/6 Supporters of the black consciousness movement, Azapo.
2005 Femina (S. Afr.) Feb. 53/1 Steve was the first president of the SA Student's Association, which he helped start in 1968 to raise black consciousness in the country.
† black cotton ground n. Obs. = black cotton soil n.
1804 Marquess of Wellesley Let. 12 Sept. in R. G. Burton Wellington’s Campaigns in India (1908) 167 The rain..rendered Monson's marches much more difficult than they would otherwise have been; particularly in that country, which is a black cotton ground.
1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 205/1 On the whole surface of the table-land [of the Deccan] a black soil prevails, which, from being favourable to the growth of cotton, has been called the black cotton ground, or regur.
1884 Gazetteer Bombay Presidency XXII. iv. 254 In this transition region the soil is generally a reddish alluvial clayslate crossed here and there..by narrow belts of black cotton ground.
black cotton soil n. a dark, rich alluvial soil found in the Deccan region of India, produced by the disintegration of black lava and suitable for cotton cultivation; = regur n.; (also) a dark muddy soil found in parts of Africa.
1814 B. Heyne Tracts on India xix. 309 The soil in the large plains is universally the black cotton soil, having a sub-soil of calcareous marl resting either on compact limestone or on clay slate.
1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. 442 The ‘regur’, or rich black cotton soil of India.
1935 H. B. Thomas & R. Scott Uganda vii. 116 It is almost uncultivable and is known (quite erroneously since it will not grow cotton) as ‘black cotton soil’.
1960 M. Perham Lugard 1898–1945 iii. 51 The black cotton-soil plains of Bornu [Nigeria], flat dry land patched with thorn-scrub.
1991 Antiquity 65 796/2 The Deccan Chalcolithic was essentially a village culture which flourished in the region of the fertile black cotton soil.
2002 Trav. Afr. Winter 36/2 Not unless ploughing through black cotton soil quagmires or being eaten alive by mosquitoes and tsetse flies features high on your list of fun activities.
Black Country n. an area of the West Midlands of England which, esp. in the 19th cent., was blackened by the smoke and dust of the coal and iron trades there.
1834 J. C. Young Jrnl. 20 July in Mem. C. M. Young (1871) 325 In the densely-populated black country, with its smoke and blasts and furnaces.
1864 Daily Tel. 12 Dec., By night the Black Country blazes up lurid and red with fires which..are never extinguished.
1924 Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 29 Nov. 248/2 Some of the finest structural engineering in the world was done in the Black Country.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 5 Oct. 25/2 ‘So I got a ticket and I went’, Iqbal says flatly in his adenoidal Black Country accent.
black county n. U.S. a county in the southern United States in which the majority of the population is African-American.
1867 Chicago Tribune 1 Apr. 1/5 The chief trouble, however, will be in the black counties, where..the blacks are still under the tyrannical heels of their old masters.
1888 Congress. Rec. Sept. 8947/1 Justices of the peace in the black counties..converted their offices into engines of oppression to both races.
1969 Times 31 July 8/3 In the black counties of the deep south, the whites can feel threatened and beleaguered.
2004 Jet 13 Sept. 30/2 Developing one of the nation's more affluent Black counties.
black crop n. a non-cereal crop, esp. one of legumes, but also occas. one of roots or brassicas.
1795 G. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Mid-Lothian (new ed.) vii. 89 The dung forced the crop of wheat, and this succeeded by the black crop, which seldom failed to prosper, left the land in a fine heart for barley.
1889 J. Wrightson Fallow & Fodder Crops ix. 210 Vetches..may be allowed to stand until they ripen, and they are then classed with beans and peas as ‘black crops’.
1961 F. E. Shotton in Norwich & its Region (Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci.) 165/1 Wherever possible a cereal should follow a root or ‘black’ crop.
black damp n. Mining air that is unbreathable owing to a high content of carbon dioxide; = choke-damp n.; cf. damp n.1 1b.
1736 Lett. from Moor at London 11 Divers colliers ventur'd down at different times..but perceiving a black damp in the work.., were as often obliged to return.
1836 Scenes of Commerce 334 The miners..also meet with foul air, called by them the black damp..which suffocates the instant it is inhaled.
1914 Amer. Jrnl. Pharmacy 86 370 How does the admixture of black-damp modify the respirability of mine air?
1998 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 18 His own father had died from breathing in black damp as an oversman down the pit.
black disease n. Veterinary Med. = infectious necrotic hepatitis n. at infectious adj. Special uses.
1906 W. H. Hall Official Year Bk. New S. Wales 1904-5 282 The chief diseases of sheep recorded during the last ten years are anthrax, foot-rot, fluke, worms, and the black disease.
1918 Jrnl. Compar. Pathol. & Therapeutics 31 2 Two explanations of the origin of the term black disease are given, viz., (1) on account of the dark appearance of the liver of animals dead of the disease; (2) because of the dark colour assumed by the under surface of the skin.
1986 J. F. Gracey Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) xv. 317/1 Other clostridial diseases such as tetanus and black disease result from the elaboration of toxin in previously damaged tissue, e.g. a deep puncture wound in tetanus and a lesion caused by immature flukes in black disease.
black doctor n. a type of artificial fishing fly; cf. sense A. 6.
1883 Hand Bk. Gun, Fishing-rod & Tackle Requisites 23 Full dressed fancy salmon flies..Silver Doctor, Black Doctor, Butcher.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 22 Oct. 4/2 When..there is no possibility of catching a salmon except by that engine of death, the ‘Black Doctor’—the three big hooks tied back to back and dragged along the floor of a pool.
2006 C. Mann Featherwing & Hackle Flies for Salmon & Steelhead 21/1 The Black Doctor is another pattern that still finds a place in modern fishing.
black draught n. now hist. a purgative liquid medicine containing an infusion of senna and a variety of other ingredients (typically magnesium sulphate, liquorice, and herbs and spices); a dose of this; also fig.
1823 London Med. & Physical Jrnl. 50 321 In twelve hours from the first purgative he had three grains of calomel and six of James' powder; followed, in twelve hours, by a black draught.
1840 Thackeray Paris Sketch Bk. I. 166 Go enjoy your dull black draughts of metaphysics.
1861 A. K. H. Boyd Recreat. Country Parson 2nd Ser. 155 As if you gave a man a large jug of pure water, and then cast into it a few drops of black-draught.
1935 Lancet 14 Dec. 1345/1 My grandfather used a blue pill and a black draught which he called ‘a birch broom and a bucket of water’.
2003 D. A. E. Shephard Island Doctor iii. 38 Further treatment included an enema of salts, muriate of soda, oil of terebinth, and Black draught (a senna preparation).
black-dress n. now rare attrib. designating a convict who must wear a black uniform as a mark of misconduct.
1875 Sunday Mag. 745/1 The black dress men are now kept separate at work as well as elsewhere, and are only released and returned to the parties when they have given some proof of improvement.
1899 Daily News 3 July 5/6 The convict Billinge is what is known as a ‘Black dress’ man, being thus distinguished because of his bad conduct.
1913 T. Hopkins Wards of State i. iii. 54 The black-dress men have been flogged with the cat-o'-nine tails for an assault on a warder.
black drink n. N. Amer. a ceremonial drink of certain North American Indian peoples of the south-eastern United States, usually made from the leaves of the yaupon; cf. yapon n.
1772 D. Taitt in N. D. Mereness Trav. Amer. Colonies (1916) 503, I went this Morning to the Hot house and Stayed there about two hours smoking and drinking black drink.
1884 A. S. Gatschet Migration Legend Creek Indians I. i. iii. 183 The black drink was the symbol of purification from wickedness, of prowess in war and of friendship and hospitality.
1985 W. Brandon Indians (new ed.) viii. 222 The old ceremonies, the black drink, the busk or green-corn festival, the eternal games of chunkey and ball play, went on as ever.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees x. 246 The native people of the south-eastern United States make ‘black drink’ from the leaves of I. vomitoria.
black dwarf n. Astron. a star that is not luminous; spec. one resulting from the cooling of a white dwarf.
1929 R. H. Fowler Statist. Mech. xxi. 552 If such matter were removed by any cause from the interior of the black dwarf it could not then resume its ordinary state.
1933 Science 20 Jan. 71/2 Milne points out that we should have not only white dwarfs with degenerate cores, but still fainter orange and red dwarfs, stages of approach to the dead ‘black dwarf’.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. x. 284 Some black dwarfs come from featherweight stars.., stars that were not massive enough to begin hydrogen burning; others are cooled white dwarfs.
2002 K. Heusch tr. H. Fritzsch Curvature of Spacetime xiv. 185 Stars that are lighter, or even a bit heavier, than our Sun will be subject to a fate similar to that of the Sun: they will pass through a phase as white dwarfs, finally to end up as black dwarfs.
black earth n. †(a) a type of black pitch; = bitumen n. 1; (obs. rare) (b) soil or earth that is black; a rich, dark soil, spec. = chernozem n.; freq.attrib., designating regions characterized by such soils, esp. in Russia and in the southern United States (cf. black belt n. 2); cf. black soil n.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 613 Annoint his body..with Brimstone, and soft Idean Pitch, with wax, Hellibur, black-earth, or the flesh of shrimps.
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 113 Thin Vessels made of black earth, the which are pierced in the neck.
1799 W. Tooke View Russ. Empire I. i. ii. 72 On the Oby near Barnaul, the black earth does not indeed go very deep.
1842 Proc. Geol. Soc. 3 712 (title) On the Tchornoi Zem, or Black Earth of Central Russia.
1861 Rep. H.M. Secretaries No. 4 250 in Acts & Papers XXX (Parl. Papers LXIII), The ‘black-earth’ region, where the ‘obrok’ system prevails only as the exception.
1905 Athenæum 5 Aug. 175/1 The black-earth country of the south.
1935 J. S. Huxley & A. C. Haddon We Europeans vii. 198 The black-earth belt of Russia.
2000 Gardening Life Summer 22/2 Triple Mix... Three ingredients: compost (or composted manure), sphagnum peat moss and loam (or black earth).
2001 Independent 20 Mar. i. 15/2 The fertile Black Earth regions of the south also have a bad reputation for muddiness.
black economy n. (a) U.S. the economy of the black population of the United States (now rare); (b) that part of a country's economic activity which is not officially declared or reported to its government, esp. in order to evade taxation (cf. underground economy n. at underground adj. 4e,black market n., and see sense A. 15a).
1929 Polit. Sci. Q. 44 620 The dream of an independent black economy within white society suits the Negro better than a working-class movement which knows no color line.
1974 Times 24 Sept. (Internat. Scene section) p. ix/6 Fuelled by stagnant or declining industrial and agricultural production, deficit budgetary financing and the existence of a parallel ‘black’ economy (mainly the product of massive tax evasion), the general price level rose.
1978 Washington Post 18 Jan. a1 When placed against the statistics of blacks still in poverty, they indicate the disturbing quality of the black economy—a slow-growing black middle-class and an increasingly jobless lower economic class.
2002 Times 1 July 10/3 Ministers believe that ‘entitlement cards’ could have an important role to play in fighting illegal immigration, terrorism, benefit fraud and the black economy.
Black English n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) any of various distinctive forms of English used by black people; esp. =African American Vernacular English n. at African-American n. and adj. Special uses; see also British Black English n. at British adj. and n. Special uses 2.
1734 S.-Carolina Gaz. 30 Mar. 3/2 To be sold... Four young Negroe Men Slaves and a Girl, who..speak very good (Black-)English.
1919 C. M. Andrews Colonial Folkways vi. 150 Many of the slaves were African Negroes who spoke no English at all or only what was called ‘Black English’, and for that reason among others the Negro born in America always commanded a higher price in the market.
1968 W. Labov et al. Study of Non-Standard Eng. of Negro & Puerto Rican Speakers in NYC i. 278 The question must be posed to those..who see the actual performance of the ghetto youth as a deviation from some ideal, homogeneous Black English.
1973 Amer. Speech 43 30 The formal style used by a speaker of black English (referred to here as 'formal black English').
1978 Eng. Jrnl. Dec. 7/1 There are dozens of standard kinds of Black English, which vary from Detroit to Chicago to Mobile to Albuquerque.
2004 New Yorker 31 May 34/2 Black activists sometimes say that African-American kids need to become ‘bi-dialectic’—to speak both black English and standard English—to succeed.
Black English Vernacular n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) Linguistics = African American Vernacular English n. at African-American n. andadj. Special uses; abbreviated BEV.African American Vernacular English is now generally the preferred term.
1972 W. Labov Lang. in Inner City p. xiii, I will then refer to the black English vernacular (BEV) as that relatively uniform grammar found in its most consistent form in the speech of black youth from 8 to 19 years old who participate fully in the street culture of the inner cities.
2006 City Jrnl. (N.Y.) (Nexis) Fall, Pinker attacks the idea that the English of the ghetto, Black English Vernacular, is in any way inferior to standard English.
black fast n. chiefly R.C. Church a fast which includes abstinence from milk and eggs; cf. black fasting adj. at Special uses 4b.
1519 in A. M. Cooke Act Bk. Eccl. Court Whalley (1901) 67 Elizabetha..assereba[t] se velle perficere vnum Jeiunium vocatum, the blakffast, ad invodandam vindictam contra Edmundum Parker.
1577 R. Barnes Charge in Newcastle Tracts (1850) VI. 16 That no..superfluous faste be vsed as those called the Lady fast saint trinyons fast, the black faste.
1864 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 397/2 The Viceroy..puts the household one day every week on cold mutton, and makes Friday a black fast.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. 145 Their butteries and larders. I'd like to see them do the black fast Yom Kippur.
1977 T. Kilroy Talbot's Box (1979) 21 Sure it's only during Lent, doctor, he does the black fast.
2008 S. Heaney in D. O'Driscoll Stepping Stones ii. viii. 232 I'd been hearing about..people in earlier generations doing ‘the black fast’. Apparently they would walk the whole way to Donegal, keeping going on black tea and dry bread.
black-figure n. Archaeol. attrib. designating or relating to a type of Ancient Greek pottery ornamented with figures in black silhouette; (absol.) this type of pottery or ornamentation.
1867 C. Babington Catal. Select. Col. Leake's Greek Coins 29/2 See also a representation of one [sc. pointed amphora] (stuck in the ground) in a black-figure vase in Leake's collection.
1891 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 12 164 Small fragment of a black-figure cylix.
1930 J. D. Beazley in Proc. Brit. Acad. 14 217 (title) Attic Black-Figure.
1948 A. Lane Greek Pott. iii. 19 This orientalising phase of the seventh century saw also the introduction of polychrome painting and the ‘black figure’ technique, wherein black-painted silhouette figures were enriched with detail incised in the yet unfired clay.
1999 Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair: 1999 Handbk. 76/1 (caption) Greek neck amphora decorated in the black-figure style enlivened with purple and white,..circa 510 BC.
black-figured adj. Archaeol. designating or relating to Ancient Greek pottery ornamented in the black-figure style; see black-figure n.
1825 J. Christie Disquis. Painted Greek Vases 120 The Black-figured Vases rank next for antiquity and curiosity.
1890 M. de G. Verrall & J. E. Harrison Mythol. & Monuments Anc. Athens 432 It [sc. the vase] is of the finest early black-figured style, not later than the time of the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.
1993 D. S. Olson Confessions Aubrey Beardsley (1994) x. 202 Sketching everything I saw, from golden Byzantine madonnas..to black-figured satyrs dancing..across the curve of a kylix.
black flesh n. orig. U.S. (now hist.) slaves of African origin, considered as a commodity (cf. fleshmonger n. 3).
1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie I. viii. 125 The newspapers of Kentuck have called you a dealer in black flesh a hundred times, but little did they reckon that you drove the trade into white families.
1896 Fortn. Rev. July 9 The easeful leisure of certain cultured English men and women..is the result of their fathers' traffic in black flesh.
1968 Ebony Nov. 16/4 It was the Arab who showed the white man what a fortune could be made in black flesh.
2000 F. A. Nussbaum in V. Jones Women & Lit. in Brit., 1700–1800 iii. 69 Any Englishmen possessed the right to trade in black flesh.
black frost n. frost which does not have a white appearance; a deposit or occurrence of this; contrasted with white or hoar frost (cf. frost n. 2a); cf. black ice n.
a1425 (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Dan. iii. 69 Dewis and whijt forst [L. pruina], blesse ȝe the Lord... Blac forst [c1384 E.V. Byndynge frost; L. gelu] and coold, blesse ȝe the Lord.
1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus (new ed.) sig. Fijv, The greene blade that shooteth too earely is soone bitt with a black frost.
1756 L. Carter Diary 4 Nov. (1965) I. 131 The fine Rain yesterday was succeeded by..a hard black frost.
1842 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales II. 261 The hoar frost, and the black frost, hath done its work on Brother Adam and Sister Martha.
1996 Guardian 1 Feb. i. 14/7 Snow and black frosts in the Cheviots can decimate woodcock and snipe.
black gang n. now hist. a gang employed on work such as supplying or stoking a furnace with coal.
1862 M. Oliphant John Arnold xii. 187 He saw various groups of the black gang, of his own and kindred trades, hastening hither and thither, carrying tools.
1918 L. E. Ruggles Navy Explained 24 The engineer's division is always known as the ‘black gang’.
1923 R. D. Paine Comrades of Rolling Ocean iii. 44 There wasn't a smarter man in the black gang.
2000 P. W. B. Semmens & A. J. Goldfinch How Steam Locomotives really Work vii. 274 Refuelling tended to involve hard physical work by a ‘black gang’.
† black gentleman n. Obs. (with the) the devil; cf. gentleman n. 5a.
1685 G. Sinclair Satans Invisible World Discovered 7 The black Gentleman being present, (which was the name she gave the Devil).
1728 C. Cibber Vanbrugh's Provok'd Husband iv. i. 71 C. Bas. Well, the Devil fetch me... Myr. And may the Black Gentleman tuck me under his Arm at the same time.
1854 C. Lever Dodd Family Abroad I. xxii. 197 Those stories where people make compacts with the Devil, and always try to pose him by the terms of the bargain. In the present instance, I certainly got off easier than I should have done with the Black Gentleman.
black ginger n. ginger root which has not had the dark outer skin scraped away; cf. white ginger n. at white adj. Special uses 1b(b).
a1561 T. Vicary Surgions Directorie (1651) 258 Take..white and blacke Ginger, Sinamond, of each halfe a dram in fine-powder.
1707 London Gaz. No. 4319/3, With Annotto, lower'd to 8d. per lb. and Black Ginger to 15s. per C.
1887 C. A. Moloney Sketch Forestry W. Afr. 427 The coated or unscraped sort is similarly prepared, excepting that the rhizomes are unscraped; this is sometimes called Black Ginger.
1996 A. Greif in P. Dasgupta et al. Econ. Transnational Commons 267 The inferior black ginger that had..to be sent to another European country in the hope that it would be sold there.
black gold n. colloq. (orig. N. Amer.) petroleum; mineral oil.
1910 Sunset 25 173 (title) California's black gold: the romance of the oil gushers.
1969 Punch 19 Mar. 401/3 Tankers which leave the Gulf with 200,000 tons of black gold come to Milford Haven with nothing but a cargo of pullulating bacteria.
2003 New Internationalist Jan.–Feb. (Chronicle 2002 Suppl.) 7/2 Now near the top of the list of oil producers, Russia is increasingly dependent on its ‘black gold’ as a revenue-producer.
black gospel n. a style of gospel music performed by African-Americans, having characteristics influenced by both traditional spirituals and popular music.
1968 Ebony Sept. 100/2 This [sc. the impact of black culture] is most noticeable..in the music field where the influence of black gospel, jazz and rhythm & blues is pervasive.
1977 National Observer (U.S.) 22 Jan. 22/4 Is it country and western, or country-rock, or..Delta blues or black gospel, or what?
2010 Star-News (Wilmington, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 18 Feb. 1 d, He was mixing the influences of his time and his region of the country—church music, black gospel, blues, some of the jazzier stuff.
black gown n. (a) an academic; a learned person; (b) (chiefly among North American Indians) a Christian priest, esp. a Jesuit missionary (cf.Black Robe n.).
1616 T. Scot Philomythie xi. 79 The Flie and Flea having in Court got place... They thought since these..grew rich & braue They would as nimbly too..For many black gowns ther then ought..And thus resolu'd the Flea leaps up aloft.
1698 tr. L. Hennepin New Discov. in Amer. i. lxxiv. 296 A Mass of Requiem had been sung for me in the Monastery, because some Savages had given out for certain, to a Black Gown, i.e. a Jesuite, That the Nation whom the Iroquois call Hontouagaha, had hung me to a Tree with St. Francis's Rope.
1700 E. Ward Step to Stir-Bitch-Fair 12 We saw several Black Gowns pop in and out of the little Country-hovels, like so many Black Rabbits in a Warren, bolting out of their Coney-Burroughs.
1710 J. Toland Refl. Sacheverell's Serm. 12 That great Company of Black-Gowns, commanded in chief by..Doctor Lancaster.
1804 C. B. Brown tr. C. F. de Volney View Soil & Climate U.S.A. 409 This is as difficult to the black gowns as to ourselves.
1872 Amer. Naturalist 6 94 Everywhere among the western Indians the Jesuits were known by the name of Blackgowns.
1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood iii. 56 But think you our bannock-fed foot-sentinels care a doit for the black gowns at Westminster?
2000 tr. P. Lombard Vice & Virtue v. 57 Mazarin decided to serve His Holiness without joining the black gowns.
black growth n. U.S. (now hist. and rare) evergreen trees collectively; cf. blackwood n.1 2.
1815 in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. 2nd Ser. III. 121 The wood is chiefly black growth, viz. hemlock and spruce.
1913 J. Knowles Alone in Wilderness xiv. 215, I would pick the site of a camp in the open, under the shelter of spruce or cedar, or some other black-growth timber.
1995 Jrnl. Amer. Hist. 82 375/2, I grew up close to the center of New England forest..looking out over the hardwood ridges and intervales into the ‘black growth’ of the upland evergreens.
black heat n. a degree of heat or a temperature that is not sufficiently warm enough to produce visible light; cf. red heat n. 2; white heat n.
1800 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 90 306, I therefore placed a poker, when of a proper black heat, at 12 inches from the steel mirror.
1888 Trans. Inst. Engineers & Shipbuilders Scotl. 31 91 A sheet of copper was brought to a black heat and allowed to cool gradually.
1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 81 199 The searing or docking iron must be at ‘black heat’, not red hot.
2005 C. McRaven Blacksmith's Craft iv. 78 For a blacksmith's finish on your tongs, heat to a black heat, which is just under darkest red, and dip into oil.
black helicopter n. and adj. U.S. (a) n. (in the context of various conspiracy theories) an unmarked, dark-coloured helicopter believed to be involved in sinister or covert activities, esp. relating to the establishment of a global government; (b) adj. (attrib.) of or relating to belief in conspiracies of this type (cf. tinfoil hat n. Compounds a).
1976 Havre (Montana) Daily News 2 July 2/6 There are numerous reports of unidentified flying objects... Black helicopters, unclaimed by any agency or firm, hover over the Montana countryside.
1987 K. Anderson Sympathy for Devil iii. 331 We love those black helicopters and all that spook stuff.
1994 J. Keith Black Helicopters over Amer. i. 18 We are able to first document sightings of the black helicopters beginning in August of 1971, in Lake County, Colorado.
1995 Boston Herald (Nexis) 7 May, The favorite conspiracy script of the right-wing ‘one world’ paranoiacs..can be loosely dubbed ‘the Black Helicopter Theory’.
1996 Economist 14 Dec. 53/2 Because of black-helicopter paranoia, this calm counsel will probably get lost in alarmism.
1998 E. Davis TechGnosis (1999) viii. 225 Thousands of otherwise ordinary citizens have reported run-ins with..black helicopters, chupacabras, and almond-eyed extraterrestrials armed with anal probes.
2010 M. Labash Fly Fishing with Darth Vader 237 He rubs turpentine in the wounds of black-helicopter types, saying that he believes in the United Nations so strongly.
black history n. (also with capital initial(s)) the history of black people, esp. as a subject of academic study.
1920 L. Stoddard Rising Tide of Color against White World-supremacy 88 The key-note of black history, like yellow history, has been isolation.
1969 Jrnl. Louisiana Hist. Assoc. 10 71 The history department of Southern University is planning to initiate a more intensified program in the study of ‘Black History’.
2008 National Parks Summer 59/3 This was his [sc. Carter G. Woodson's] library... This is where black history began.
black hood n. now hist. a non-regent member of the senate of the University of Cambridge, distinguished from a regent (regent n. 3a) by wearing a black hood; also attrib. in Black-hood House; cf. white-hood n. at white adj. Special uses 2h.Quot. 1763 appears to confuse regents with non-regents.
1763 Cantabrigia Depicta 21 The Vice-Chancellor's Chair is at the West End, and semicircular Seats on the Right and Left of it for the Heads, Noblemen, and Doctors: Below them sit the Regents, or Black-hoods, and at the East the Non-regents, or White-hoods.
1797 Cambr. Univ. Cal. 147 The Non-Regents or Black-hoods are those who have taken their master of arts' degree five years or upwards.
1805 Cambr. Univ. Cal. p. ii, All the rest constitute the Non-Regent of Lower House, otherwise called the Black Hood House, its members wearing black silk Hoods.
1859 N. & Q. 23 July 75/1 The white lining cannot with propriety be retained by those who so habited were admitted M.A., and have never become Non-regents or black hoods.
1926 M. R. James Eton & King's 111 Non-regents were the senior M.A.'s who were no longer under the obligation to lecture; in old times they constituted a separate House in the Senate—the Black-hood House.
Black Hundred n. (also Black Hundreds) now hist. a pro-tsarist counter-revolutionary movement characterized by extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism, formed during the Russian Revolution of 1905; supporters of this movement, considered collectively. [After Russian čërnaja sotnja (1905 in this sense) < čërnaja , feminine form of čërnyj black (see chernozem n.) + sotnja hundred (see sotnia n.).
The term čërnaja sotnja is attested in Old Russian from the 17th cent. in sense ‘urban communities of small tradesmen and craftsmen paying their taxes to the state’, where čërnaja referred to the state ownership of the occupied land and sotnja had the sense ‘urban community’. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, čërnaja sotnja was first applied to the radical pro-tsarist movement as a term of disparagement, with čërnaja reinterpreted in senses ‘evil’ and ‘ignorant’ and sotnja influenced by the sense ‘Cossack squadron’ (see sotnia n.). The term was quickly adopted by the movement itself (first by V. A. Gringmut in an article of 3 June 1906), with čërnaja reinterpreted as referring to ‘simple people’ (compare etymological note at narod n.).]
1905 Westm. Gaz. July 4/1 The Black Hundreds..are being organized for the purpose of simultaneous pogroms in thirty or forty towns.
1917 N.Y. Tribune 28 Mar. 1/2 From all parts of the empire I hear that the reformers are receiving heartening news except from Odessa, where the Black Hundred recently provoked considerable disorder.
1976 tr. S. Ettinger in H. H. Ben-Sasson Hist. Jewish People lvii. 887 The Union of the Russian People and the Black Hundreds organized mass ‘patriotic processions’ with portraits of the Tsar borne aloft.
2006 Slavic Rev. 65 316 He [sc. Kronshtadtskii] was an ardent supporter of tsardom, and after 1905 he became an honorary member of several Black Hundred organizations.
Black Indian n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (in the late 19th cent.) a person of African descent living as a member of a North American Indian community; (now also) a person of mixed African-American and North American Indian descent.
1876 Indian Jrnl. (Muskogee, Indian Territory) 14 Sept. 2/3 There is no reason why any bona fide member of the Cherokee or other Nation in the Territory, whatever may be his complexion, should not take a becoming part in its local politics... The Journal therefore urges red Indians, white Indians, and black Indians to fully post themselves upon their political rights.
1877 S. W. Marston Rep. 8 Nov. in E. C. Boudinot Oklahoma (1878) 55 Cherokees. Indians by blood..14,800. White Indians by marriage..700. Black Indians by treaty..3,500.
1979 N.Y. Mag. 17 Sept. 6/4 They're black Indians, they've intermarried so much... Their reservation is on Route 27A—the best property on Long Island.
1982 L. Bennett Before Mayflower 322 A number of black women married Indian braves. Of the two wives of Micanopy,..one was a black Indian.
1993 N.Y. Amsterdam News (Electronic ed.) 6 Nov. 18 When the local media understood that these were actually Black Indians claiming the lands, many began to let their racism toward both Native Americans and African-Americans surface overtly.
2008 R. Casement Black Hist. in Pages of Children's Lit. vii. 118 [The book] also contains many stories of Black Indians in the South, where many escaped slaves from coastal North Carolina and Georgia found a culture of acceptance with the Seminole Indians who lived in Florida.
black ice n. thin hard ice which is transparent and often difficult to see, esp. as deposited on a road in cold weather.
1827 W. Hone Table Bk. I. 75/2 Black ice is discovered between banks of snow, and ramified into numerous transverse, oblique, semicircular, or elliptical branches.
1922 C. S. Wright & R. E. Priestley Glaciol. x. 325 Large sheets of fresh ‘black’ ice a very few inches thick..had evidently formed between the floes.
1961 Guardian 28 Dec. 1/3 Roads in many places were covered with black ice which was hard to detect at night.
1999 A. Arensberg Incubus iii. ix. 98 The walk concealed a triple hazard: wet moss, patches of black ice, and bricks heaved askew by past frosts.
black Irish adj. and n. sometimes derogatory (a) adj. describing an Irish person, or one of Irish ancestry, having dark hair and a dark complexion or eyes; (b) n. (with pl. concord and the) such people collectively.
1875 Amer. Bibliopolist Dec. 260/1 The same usage still prevails among the vulgar as in the phrases, ‘black Irish’, ‘black Dutch’, describing certain well known types of Celts and Teutons (Hollanders, probably), differing widely from the prevailing type of either race in respect of their black eyes and hair, and gypsy-like, tawny complexions.
1888 R. Kipling Soldiers Three 84 Those are the Black Oirish an' 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name av Oireland.
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned v. 46 His fleshy hooked nose..suggested Jewish blood, but he claimed he was black Irish.
1962 Guardian 18 July 5/5 That haunted ‘Black Irish’ face [of Eugene O'Neill].
1970 K. Giles Death in Church vii. 177 Have you ever seen the black Irish?
1993 H. Gardner Creating Minds vii. 268 Martha turned out to be an even mix of the two parents, a stern indomitable Godfearing Puritan pioneer on one side, and on the other a wild tempestuous moody, dream-obsessed and quick-to-anger creature of the Black Irish persuasion.
black Jew n. a Jewish person who is dark-skinned or black, esp. (in Asia and Africa) as distinguished from one of European or Levantine ancestry; (also) = Falasha n.
1807 C. Buchanan Jrnl. 4 Feb. in Christian Res. in Asia (1811) 192 The resident Jews are divided into two classes, called the Jerusalem or White Jews; and the Ancient or Black Jews. The White Jews reside at this place [sc.Cochin]. The Black Jews have also a Synagogue here; but the great body of that tribe inhabit towns in the interior of the province.
1843 J. C. Maitland Lett. from Madras xviii. 178, I told him about the first preachers, the Black Jews, the Syrian Christians, &c.
1892 G. M. Rae Syrian Church in India x. 150 These black Jews are converts to the faith from among the people of the land.
1907 I. Zangwill Ghetto Comedies 155 The black Jews..surrounded by all those millions of Hindoos.
1964 Guardian 26 Mar. 16/4 The Falasha, the so-called Black Jews of Ethiopia.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 6 Dec. 53/3 The Malabari Jews who were known to the British as Black Jews; the Pardesi (foreign) or White Jews..and the Brown Jews, descendants of manumitted slaves who had been converted to Judaism.
2006 Canad. Jewish News (Nexis) 13 July 1 Operation Moses (1984-85) and Operation Solomon (1991) brought to Israel the Beta Israel, the black Jews of Ethiopia known pejoratively by their neighbours as Falashas (strangers or outsiders).
† black job n. slang Obs. a funeral.
1785 R. Cumberland Nat. Son iii. 41 We shou'd have had a terrible journey of it, if we had not luckily fallen in with a black job by the way, and kept company with the corpse to Exeter Cathedral.
1849 Thackeray Lett. (1887) 91 An expatriated parson..who gets his living by black jobs entirely and attends all the funerals of our country-men.
1876 W. P. Lennox Celebrities I. xii. 313 The ‘black job’ business.
Black Joke n. (also coal-black joke) (the name of) a tune used for popular songs and dances.In the 18th cent. the tune was freq. used for bawdy songs in whose refrain ‘black joke’ refers to the female genitals (see quot. 1796).
1729 C. Coffey Beggar's Wedding i. iv. 17 (heading) Hunter with Musick. Air X. Coal-black Joak.
c1734 in T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (O.H.S.) II. 463 His black Jokes or smutty Songs.
1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random II. liii. 186 He whistled one part and hummed another of Black Joke.
1796 Grose's Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 3) , Black Joke, a popular tune to a song, having for the burden, ‘Her black joke and belly so white’: figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable.
1808 S. W. Ryley Itinerant I. iv. 91 A blind fiddler, mounted on a three footed stool, rasped away very seriously the black Joke.
c1835 Oxford Freshman (song) , Next night I got drunker than ever, And sang the Black Joke at his [my Tutor's] door.
1970 P. O'Brian Master & Commander (new ed.) ix. 252 He decided..to sit it out until the drum beat to quarters,..humming the Black Joke.
2009 C. Bartram Eng. Fiddle 53 The Black Joke has been around for some hundreds of years. Many latter-day English musicians associate the tune with the morris dance.
black knight n. Business slang a person or company making an unwelcome takeover bid; cf. white knight n. (b) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1978 Newsweek 16 Oct. 88/1 ‘White knights’ rush to rescue ‘sleeping beauties’ from ‘black knights’... So goes the lingo in what is fast becoming Wall Street's hottest game, the merger-and-acquisition business.
1988 Economist 29 Oct. 98/2 Unsolicited offers have become common. KKR is one of the most aggressive ‘black knights’.
2010 H. Bierman Introd. Accounting & Managerial Finance 304 A corporation..finding that it was being pursued by an undesirable suitor (a black knight) would arrange to buy the shares held by the black knight at a premium.
black knot n. (a) Irish English a knot which is difficult to undo (now rare); (b) a fungal disease of fruit trees characterized by the formation of irregularly shaped rough black swellings on the bark; (also, more fully black knot fungus) any of several fungi causing this disease, esp. Dibotryon morbosum, chiefly affecting plum and cherry trees.
1840 Irish Penny Jrnl. 14 Nov. 155/1 His tail bein' very long, gave a twitch an' hitched itself in a black knot round the chap's body, and so towed him across the river.
1846 Cultivator July 222/2 The black knot on the plum tree, is also cured in the same way.
1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 252 Sphæria mortosa, ‘Black knot’ fungus.
1905 J. M. Synge Shadow of Glen & Riders to Sea 50 Give me a knife, Nora, the string's perished with the salt water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't loosen in a week.
1915 Board Agric. & Fisheries Leaflet No. 213, Gooseberry Black-knot (Plowrightia ribesia, Sacc.).
1990 National Gardening May 12/3 The growth is black knot fungus... Remove the black knots on the smaller limbs by pruning out infected branches.
2004 G. A. Hammerson Connecticut Wildlife 156/1 (caption) Black knot is a fungal parasite commonly afflicting native cherries.
black latten n. = latten-brass n. at latten n. 3b.
1545 Rates Custome House sig. a.iiiiv, Blacke latten rolles the c. pound xx.s.
1660 Act 12 Chas. II c. 4 Sched. Rates Inwards, Lattin vocant blacke Lattin the hundred weight..ij li. shaven Lattin..iij li. vj s. viij d.
1763 R. Dodsley Preceptor (ed. 4) II. 436 Black Latten is Metal prepared for Clock-work, Jacks, Engines.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 107 Shaven Latten is distinguished from Black Latten by its thinness, and brightness on both sides of the sheets.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 223/1 Black latten is brass in milled sheets, composed of copper and zinc, used by braziers, and for drawing into wire.
2005 N. Shopland Archaeol. Finds i. 21 There are three forms of latten: black latten which is usually unpolished; shaven latten which is generally very thin, and roll latten.
black level n. Television the level of the picture signal that corresponds to black in the transmitted picture.
1935 Proc. IRE 23 1457 This provides a black-white ratio of at least 3 to 1 and a black level high enough to eliminate noise pickup troubles.
1982 J. Goldberg Fund. Television Servicing i. 5 Television standards identify a white level and a black level of picture information.
2002 Sound & Vision May 83/2 Both the black level and grayscale will drift as it warms up.
black light n. (a) light supposed to be able to pass through objects that are opaque to the eye (now hist.); (b) light (electromagnetic radiation) with a wavelength just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum; ultraviolet light.
1896 G. Le Bon in Philos. Mag. 41 236 As they are invisible to the eye, I give the name of black light to those radiations of unknown origin which pass in this way through opaque bodies.
1913 C. S. Page Sci. Physical Phenomena v. 227 The ultra-violet are discernible not only by the blackening of silver salts but by their heat. It is a spectrum of black light having a velocity..less than that of violet.
1933 Trans. Illumin. Engin. Soc. 28 618 The ‘black bulb’ ultraviolet lamp..can be easily concealed..projecting invisible radiations of ‘black light’ on to luminous designs painted on the walls.
1957 Encycl. Brit. IX. 426 d Plate 1 (caption) Photograph of white girl made in the dark by black light.
1999 H. Kragh Quantum Generations (2002) 453 The pseudodiscoveries of black light and N-rays.
2009 Time Out N.Y. 26 Feb. 51/4 Dress code: ‘glow-wear black-light reactive or underwater-themed outfits’.
black liquor n. (a) any of various black liquids used in dyeing; spec. a solution of lead acetate used as a mordant; also called iron liquor; (nowrare); (b) a liquid residue containing lignin compounds and inorganic chemicals, formed when pulpwood is heated in alkaline solution in the kraft papermaking process.
1705 tr. Whole Art Dying 259 From this mixture the Black Liquor, a Body of a new Figure, is produced.
1860 C. O'Neill Chem. Calico Printing x. 101 An impure solution of acetate of iron is made by digesting metallic iron with crude pyroligneous acid for some weeks; it has a black colour, and is known in trade as iron liquor and black liquor.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 702/1 The iron mordant which gives the best results is known as ‘black liquor’.
1935 Sewage Wks. Jrnl. 7 288 (heading) The toxic effects of waste sulphate liquor (black liquor) on fish.
2007 Wall St. Jrnl. 12 Feb. r4/3 Weyerhaeuser, for example, makes electricity..by burning hog fuel, or wood waste, and black liquor, a pulp-mill byproduct.
black literature n. †(a) literature printed in black letter (obs. rare); (b) literature written by black people, esp. as a subject of academic study.
1797 Monthly Rev. 22 345 Multitudinous porers in black literature.
1958 Kongo-overzee 24 71 The Editors are the poet Janheinz Jahn and the Africanist Ulli Beier, assisted by an editorial board which will be representative of the entire domain of black literature.
1976 A. Walker in In Search of Mothers' Gardens (1983) 288 At black literature conferences it would be examined fleetingly, if at all, in light of this ‘traitorous’ union.
2009 J. V. Gabbin Shaping Memories 56 Students there were now clamoring for courses in black literature.
black lung n. the disease anthracosis; also black lung disease.
1837 W. Thomson in Medico-chirurg. Trans. 20 243 The symptoms, towards the termination of the case, being more those of chronic bronchitis than of black lung.
1969 Newsweek 16 June 44/2 The dread black-lung disease..annually disables thousands of miners.
2009 Wire Jan. 53/4 Workman was a coal miner..in West Virginia who was forced to retire after 42 years in the mines due to black lung and a slipped disc.
black magic n. [compare French magie noire (1630)] magic involving the invocation of evil spirits; harmful or malevolent magic; cf. white magicat white adj. 7b.
1590 Spenser Faerie Queene iii. xi. 564 For he the tyrant, which her hath in ward By strong enchauntments and blacke Magicke leare, Hath in a dungeon deepe her close embard, And many dreadfull feends hath pointed to her gard.
1635 T. Heywood Hierarchie Blessed Angells vii. 469 Some diuide this abstruse Art into Theurgia, White Magicke, and Goetia, Blacke Magicke, or the Blacke Art, otherwise called Necromantia.
1711 tr. L. Bordelon Hist. Ridiculous Extravagancies Monsieur Oufle ii. viii. 234 By a Black Magic, or the Black Art,..we are to understand, whatever Men perform by Diabolical Assistance.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 125 What with slavery and what with black-magic, life is precarious among the Wakhutu.
1989 Times 21 Feb. 36/2 H also claimed to be in fear of Mr Emode's black-magic powers.
2002 Evening Standard 28 May 15/2 Each year hundreds of people become victims of human sacrifices at the hands of witch doctors or their followers in Africa and their body parts are used for black magic.
black malt n. malted barley which has been roasted until it is very dark.
1628 in M. Cash Devon Inventories 16th & 17th Cent. (Devon & Cornwall Record Soc.) (1966) New Ser. 11 40 In the Maulte House and Chamber over: the blacke mault and barley mault.
1829 D. Booth Art of Brewing ii. vii. 51/1 Some of the principal brewers have never used black malt.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 95 According to the colour and the degree of drying, malt is distributed into three sorts; pale, yellow, and brown... The black malt used by the porter brewer..is partially charred.
1994 Ale St. News Apr.–May 15/2 Grains used in Doppelbock are pale Munich, dark Munich, black malt, carapils and dextrin.
† black matins n. Obs. rare (at Christ Church, Oxford) the college matins, at which black academic gowns are worn (distinguished from the cathedral matins, at which white surplices are worn).
1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 305 If you're fond of fun, old fellow, jump up and view the Christ Church men proceeding to black matins this morning.
black metal n. a type of heavy metal music typically characterized by a fast tempo, heavily distorted guitars, shrieked vocals, and a lyrical preoccupation with evil and suffering, often with references to the occult or Satanism.
1982 ‘Venom’ (title of album) Black Metal.
1984 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 22 Dec., There is a new breed coming out which call themselves black metal... They label themselves as satanic.
1996 Herald (Rock Hill, S. Carolina) (Nexis) 12 Apr. 7 d, Their style of choice is black metal, a faster, more atmospheric form of death metal, though equally as bludgeoning.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 1 June ii. 3/1 When the band split up in 2001, its status as black metal's foremost artisans stood uncontested.
black movement n. (also with capital initial(s)) the African-American civil rights movement; cf. civil rights movement n. at civil right n.Compounds.
1965 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 18 Apr. 32 The white American reaction is just now starting to build against the black movement's use of civil disobedience, threats and coercion to gain their ends.
1973 Black World Dec. 12/1 The various ‘lib’ movements, therefore, are white derivatives of the Black movement.
2000 M. P. Levine in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 351 The black movement effectively ended legalized discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
Black Museum n. colloq. the Crime Museum of the Metropolitan Police in London, consisting of exhibits connected with crimes of the past.
1877 Observer 8 Apr. 3/3 The building is, indeed, as it is called, a Black Museum, for it is associated with whatever is darkest in human nature.
1902 A. Griffiths Myst. Police & Crime III. xxxiii. 124 Some very beautiful implements are now exhibited in the Black Museum of New Scotland Yard... Amongst these..are some of the tools used by the notorious Charles Peace.
1997 P. D. James Certain Justice (2007) iv. 424 She remembered a visit paid a year ago to the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, the high shelf with the rows of death masks—only they had been death heads—of executed criminals.
Black Muslim adj. and n. (a) adj. of or relating to the Nation of Islam movement (see Nation of Islam n.); (b) n. a member of the Nation of Islam.
1960 San Francisco News-Call Bull. 11 Oct. 4/2 Black Muslim leaders concede there are many ex-convicts, former prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics in the movement, but they put a different interpretation on this than the police.
1961 C. E. Lincoln Black Muslims in Amer. p. iv, The racial emphases peculiar to this rapidly growing, Chicago-centred movement suggested the descriptive phrase ‘Black Muslims’, which I coined in 1956... Theretofore they had been variously known as the ‘Temple People’, ‘the Muhammadans’, ‘the Muslims’, ‘the Voodoo Cult’ and ‘the Nation of Islam’.
1964 Punch 1 Apr. 505/1 Black Muslim claims to an African heritage.
1992 Newsweek 16 Nov. 74/1 He went by many names: born Malcolm Little; dubbed Red,..then Malcolm X, his Black Muslim name, and finally, after his break with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, he called himself El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
2006 J. Updike Terrorist ii. 100 The Black Muslims of New Prospect, and the apostate adherents of the Nation of Islam, keep to their own lofts and storefront sanctuaries.
Black Nationalism n. chiefly U.S. a movement advocating unity among black people, separatism from white people, and political self-determination, esp. in the form of a separate black nation.
1962 E. U. Essien-Udom (title) Black nationalism: a search for identity in America.
1963 N.Y. Times 23 Apr. 2/1 A new assertive mood, characterized by some Negro leaders as ‘Black Nationalism’ is spreading throughout the United States.
1977 Washington Post 11 Jan. a1 It is failing to provide the Afrikaners with a ‘moral alternative’ to the use of force in containing black nationalism.
1997 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville) 7 May b5/5 Unknown to most whites, Moore was a hero in Harlem and an elder stateswoman of black nationalism.
Black Nationalist n. and adj. (a) n. an advocate of self-determination for black people; spec. a supporter of Black Nationalism; (b) adj. of or relating to Black Nationalism.
1943 R. Ottley New World A-Coming viii. 105 Here, at long last, was some sort of tangible idealism..around which the black nationalist could rally, and indeed rally a great section of the black population.
1958 Cape Times 22 Dec. 12/7 What is the origin of the Africanists, the extreme Black nationalist group which recently broke away from the African National Congress?
1963 Life 24 May 4/2 The Negro's feeling that the white man's law has failed him is polarized by extreme black nationalists.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia II. 1093/1 The Black Muslims..are a quasi-religious black nationalist organization among Afro-Americans.
1992 Harper's Mag. Dec. 65/2 While black nationalist and separatist ideas coming from Elijah Mohammed seemed cranky, cult-like, backwaterish, and marginal, the same ideas coming from Malcolm seemed revolutionary, hip, and vibrant.
1999 K. A. Appiah & H. L. Gates Africana 492/3 Many early black Communist recruits, at least in the urban North, were former Garveyites and black nationalists of various stripes.
blacknob n. Sc. (depreciative) (now rare) a blackleg, a strike-breaker; = blackneb n. 3, nob n.4
1838 Times 16 Jan. 6/3 A man on the opposite side called out ‘Don't give it to him, he is a nob.’ Another beside him said ‘He is a black nob.’
1874 Scotsman 18 Mar. 5/5 All the men employed by the iron companies were on strike, with the exception of six ‘blacknobs’.
1890 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang I. 218/1 Black-nob, a non-unionist; one who, while his fellows are on strike, persists in working at his trade.
1921 W. R. Browne What's What in Labor Movement 34 An earlier term with the same connotations as ‘blackleg’ is ‘knobstick’,..and these two terms have evidently been combined to produce ‘blacknob’, another not uncommon variant.
black oil n. (a) any of various dark-coloured oils; (in later use) spec. a heavy mineral oil used for lubrication and fuel; (b) oil obtained from the blubber of the black or right whale (genus Balaena).
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health iii. f. 136, The blacke oyle is of great vertue in the ioynt sicknesse, euen lyke to a baulme.
1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces ii. 56 Then take out your Retort together with the black oyle, and pour upon it the Volatile spirit.
1790 Scots Mag. Dec. 586/1 He was aware that the black oil was comparatively of little value.
1832 Schoolmaster 6 Oct. 156/2 Black oil sells only at about half the price of the sperm oil.
1896 B. Redwood Treat. Petroleum II. ix. 532 Lubricating Oils..‘pale’ oils..‘black’ oils..‘compound’ oils.
1904 G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 54/1 Black oils, mineral oils which have not been chemically purified.
1949 Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) (ed. 2) 325 (Gloss.), Black Oils, a general term applied to the heavier and darker coloured petroleum products such as heavy diesel fuel, fuel oil and some cylinder stocks.
1954 C. R. Straubel in Whaling Jrnl. Capt. W. B. Rhodes p. xvi, The oil of black whales was usually called ‘black oil’, not because the oil was black, but because of the colour of the whales producing it.
2007 Hydrocarbon Processing (Nexis) Feb., Demand for white-oil products (gasoline and diesel) is increasing at an all-time high, while the demand for black-oil products such as fuel oil is declining.
black op n. Mil. (orig. and chiefly U.S.) (freq. in pl.) a secret or covert operation, esp. one conducted outside ordinary channels of command and accountability; also in extended use; cf. sense A. 15b.
1980 D. Freed Spymaster 374 The truth was that whatever the KBG was up to, it was Scott and the DOD that were running illegal Black ops into the United States from all over the perimeter of Central America.
1998 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 26 Oct. e4 A former ‘black op’ man and Contra trainer for the CIA, he has become a peace worker.
2004 K. Tinsley Stonehaven 209 Corporations..tap into this resource for deniable industrial ‘black ops’.
black opal n. a very dark variety of opal; a piece of such opal.
[1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica 298 We sometimes meet with blackish Opals, which shew no other Colour in any Light, only the Red.]
1771 J. Hill Fossils 201 (table) Black opal.
1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 777/2 The so-called ‘black opals’..consist of this matrix [of dark brown ironstone] penetrated in all directions by veins and spots of opal.
1948 R. M. Pearl Pop. Gemology v. 228 The tendency of black opal..to be deposited in very thin seams makes it often necessary to include a piece of the country rock..to provide a substantial support.
1996 J. T. Hospital Oyster (1997) 357 Lightning Ridge is where the serious deals are, and besides, they know black opal when they see it.
black pepper n. [after classical Latin piper nigrum; compare Old French, Middle French, French poivre noir (c1280)] peppercorns which have been harvested while still unripe, esp. dried and used either whole or ground as a spice and condiment.Also (in quot. ?a1425 ): the berry of the pepper plant ( Piper nigrum).
eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) ii. xxxii. 234 Wyrc him sealfe þus wiþ wambe coþum, of cwicum swefle & of blacum pipore.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. viii. 1278 Many þinges beþ of oon coloure wiþoute and of oþer colour wiþinne, as it fareþ in blak peper.
?a1425 (▸c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 112 And there is iij maner of peper alle vpon o tree: Long peper, blak peper, & white peper.
1539 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) ii. x. 27 Blacke pepper is hottest, and most dry, white pepper is next, long pepper is moste temperate.
1652 J. Wadsworth tr. Colmenero de Ledesma Chocolate 14 Some doe put into it [sc. chocolate] black Pepper, and also Tauasco.
1769 E. Raffald Experienced Eng. House-keeper 323 Half an Ounce of Black Pepper, the same of Long Pepper, and Ginger.
1846 ‘J. Montefiore’ Jewish Man. 4 Pour in a wine-glass of port wine, half an ounce of black pepper, a little mace, four spoonsful of ketchup or Harvey's sauce, a little salt, and the peel of a lemon grated.
1922 A. Jekyll Kitchen Ess. 179 Hard-boiled eggs accompanied by..a small wisp of oriental salt, or Cerebos, mixed with coarsely-ground black pepper for each traveller.
1964 G. C. Booth Food & Drink Mexico 55 Mix an adobo of one half teaspoon black pepper, one quarter teaspoon cumin, one quarter teaspoon salt and three tablespoons vinegar. Rub the ribs with the adobo.
2004 Delicious June 21/2 Slice the tomatoes and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
black plate n. Metall. rolled iron or steel as a raw material for tinplate making; a sheet of this.
1701 Exact Abridgm. All Statutes King William 76 For every hundred of single white or black Plates, 4 s. 4 d. and so in proportion.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products, Black plates,..thin sheets of iron not coated with tin.
1962 Engineering 16 Mar. 372/1 Continuous annealing of blackplate has been made more than ten times faster.
1996 H. E. Hough Purchasing for Manufacturing vi. 77 The principal noncoated tin product is called black plate and is simply flat rolled steel.
black pod n. an economically significant disease of the cocoa tree caused by various fungal pathogens of the genus Phytophthora, in which the pods become discoloured and necrotic; also black pod disease.
1904 Bull. Misc. Information (Trinidad Bot. Dept.) Apr. 69 In the year 1898, the Cacao pod rot known as ‘Black pod’ or black Cacao, was very prevalent on Cacao estates.
1953 Economist 19 Dec. 917/1 The outlook for the Nigerian [cocoa] crop is uncertain... The poor weather..increases the risk of black pod disease.
2006 Observer 28 May (Food Monthly) 26/1 These trees have been bred so they are not susceptible to black pod.
black pope n. [so called from the colour of his vestments, in contrast with those of the Pope, which are typically or predominantly white] colloq.the Superior General of the Jesuits.
1851 P. Connelly Cases of Conscience i. 2 The white Pontiff of the Vatican became a pageant; the black Pope of the Gesù was the real successor of the canonized Hildebrands and Ghisleris.
1873 Times 30 May 8/1 The only practical result has been an almost unanimous vote by which the General of the Jesuits, Father Becks—the ‘Black Pope’ as he is called—will be instantly..turned out of the apartments.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 339/2 It is said that the general of the Jesuits is independent of the pope; and his popular name, ‘the black pope’, has gone to confirm this idea.
2006 G. Vidal Point to Point Navigation xxx. 157 The ‘Black Pope’ is the name given the head of the Jesuit order, an order usually at delicate odds with whomever occupies the See of Peter.
black powder n. gunpowder.
1793 tr. H. Le Maire French Gil Blas IV. viii. 185 The chief appeared astonished at the skill of Philips, and the terrible effect of the black powder, which when enclosed in a narrow space, can produce such extraordinary and violent explosions.
1892 W. W. Greener Breech-loader 124 The butt of the gun being forty yards..from the target, the load being 3 drams of black powder.
1971 C. J. White Introd. Coal Mining Industry v. 37 Crude methods of blasting meant the ignition of black powder by time fuse.
2005 New Yorker 12 Dec. 80/1 Robbie loaded his Hawken musket with eighty-five grains of black powder.
black process n. Photogr. now rare a process by which black and white photographic prints or black and white copies are produced; freq. attrib.in black-process paper.
1853 Notes & Queries 26 Mar. 315/2 The chloride of barium will often produce black images, though very uncertain; and the black process as given by Le Gray is uncertain also.
1899 Mechanic Arts Mag. May 179/1 There is a black process paper, which is now coming a good deal into use... When making blackprints put strips of black process paper in your small frame.
1903 S. S. Leach Rep. Operations 1st Battalion Engineers 78 Tracing linen... Blue print paper... Black process paper.
1909 Workshop Receipts (new ed.) I. 418/2 A black process, which will compete for favour with the above blue process, is given in the Photocopie of A. Fisch.
1920 R. McGarraugh Mine Bookkeeping iv. 25 Forms ruled by hand or printed upon black-process paper.
black propaganda n. falsified or unacknowledgeable propaganda, esp. that purporting to come from an enemy's own sources, and designed to lower morale; cf. disinformation n. a.
1856 Eclectic Rev. Aug. 156 This circumstance was eagerly taken advantage of by the Black Propaganda.
1893 C. G. Leland tr. H. Heine Wks. VII. 366 This black propaganda endeavours to destroy fundamentally the fair fame of those who are now in power, that is to say, of the King.
1962 Guardian 16 Nov. 7/5 The ‘black’ propaganda of ‘Lord Haw-Haw’.
1972 F. Fitzgerald Fire in Lake iii. 76 Their tactics were promises and ‘black propaganda’, or the falsification of enemy reports.
2006 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) July 95/1 An astoundingly effective campaign of disinformation, or black propaganda, which led..the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein's nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States.
black Protestant n. (also with capital initial in the first element) (a) (a descendant of) a Protestant settler in Ireland at the time of the Cromwellian Settlement of 1652 (cf. Cromwellian n.); (b) derogatory and offensive a staunch Irish Protestant, esp. one characterized as intolerant or bigoted; also used as a more general term of abuse for an Irish Protestant.
1829 A. M. Hall Sketches Irish Char. I. 139 Ould James Corish, though suspicted o' being a black Protestant (I ax pardon; but that was what they were called), was well counted by all his neighbours.
1899 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. (1901) i. 7 They were ‘Black Protestants’, all of them, in virtue of their descent from a godly soldier of Cromwell.
1958 Furrow 9 92 Catholics have always known the difference between the ‘decent’ and the ‘black’ Protestant.
1970 Irish University Rev. 1 93 A bloody villain of a land-grabber, and a black Protestant to boot, was trying to throw a lonely, helpless..widow-woman out on the side of the road to die.
1984 Field 6 Oct. 73/2 The original Townshend was one of these ‘Cromwellites’ or ‘Black Protestants’.
2007 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 3 Aug. 21 They call him a black Protestant and yell that such should not be allowed on to a GAA pitch.
black quarter n. the disease blackleg (sense 1a), esp. in cattle; also called quarter evil, quarter ill.
1768 C. Varlo Mod. Farmers Guide II. xxxvii. 367 (heading) To prevent the Black-legg, or Black-quarter in Calves or Lambs.
1834 W. Youatt Cattle xi. 356 Inflammatory fever..is termed black quarter, quarter evil, [etc.].
1986 J. F. Gracey Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) xv. 318/1 These post-mortem changes of the liver and kidneys are responsible for the ‘foaming organs’ of blackquarter.
black rain n. (in sing. and pl.) rain that is exceptionally dark, dense, or dirty; (fig.) the radioactive rain that followed the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
1772 Crit. Rev. June 428 The vapours, fogs, and rains with which the atmosphere of London is loaded, drag with them in their fall the heaviest particles of the smoke: this forms black rains.
1820 Shelley Ode to West Wind ii, in Prometheus Unbound 190 From whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst.
1867 Sailors' Mag. & Seamen's Friend Feb. 164/2 In Scotland, these black rains have been frequently noticed.
1946 (title of film) White light black rain. [With reference to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.]
1979 P. White Let. 4 Mar. (1994) xiv. 518 We are going through awful days of humidity, and now two whole days of black rain as the result of a cyclone up north.
1991 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 7/3 Newspaper and television reports depict clouds so dense that car headlights must be turned on at midday and ‘black rain’ that coats crops, water supplies and all else with soot.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Aug. d2/2 The day after the A-bomb, my father went into Hiroshima to search for his mother and siblings. My father was exposed to the radioactive ‘black rain’.
black rent n. now hist. (esp. in the border regions of Ireland and Scotland) a payment or tribute exacted in return for protection from plunder; cf.blackmail n. 1.
1423–4 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Oct. 1423 §9. m. 1, The erle of Ormond..set his lordship of Oghtryn in the countee of Kildare, to bere tribute and blakrente to the somme of .xij. marc, to be paied to the wyf of Calagh Oconqore Irissh enemy..that the same Calagh..shulde do no harme..to the tenauntz of the said lordship.
1533 Cal. Carew MSS (Rolls Ser.) No. 39, The black rents and tributes which Irishmen by violence have obtained of the King's subjects.
1612 J. Davies Discov. Causes Ireland 200 The Borders and Marches..were growne vnruly,..being subiect to Blacke-Rents and Tribute of the Irish.
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. xviii. 718 The inhabitants..were hardly distinguishable from the Irish, and paid them a tribute, called black-rent.
2005 D. Gabaldon Breath of Snow & Ashes 297 Organized bands of armed men..rode the country, charging fees from the Highland chiefs to protect tenants, land, and cattle—and if the black rent they charged was not paid, promptly seizing goods and cattle themselves.
Black Republican n. U.S. (now hist.) a member of the Republican Party of the United States, characterized (esp. amongst Democrats) as an abolitionist or advocate of black civil rights.
1854 Sheboygan Lake (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 16 Aug., The ‘Black Republicans’.—The mongrel Convention of Abolitionists, Free Soilers, Whigs, Political Clergymen, and Fugitive Slaves.
1866 Chambers's Encycl. (at cited word), The Whig party..adopted the name of Republicans, and were called by their opponents Black Republicans, from their anti-slavery tendencies.
1929 L. W. Reese Victorian Village 121 Confederate and Federal men, statesrighters and black Republicans might froth and rave about them.
2000 M. Sinha Counterrevolution of Slavery vi. 174 Etheridge's moral condemnation of the foreign slave trade clearly reflected a minority position in the slave South. A year later, he had to fight against being branded a free soiler and a Black Republican.
Black Robe n. Canad. (now hist.) (among North American Indians) a Christian priest, esp. a missionary; cf. black gown n. (b).
1811 J. Black tr. A. von Humboldt Polit. Ess. New Spain I. 116 The Canadian savages call themselves Metoktheniakes, born of the sun, without allowing themselves to be persuaded of the contrary by the black robes, a name which they give to missionaries.
1840 N. P. Willis Canad. Scenery I. 24 They exhorted her to take it into the woods, where the blackrobes, as they called the Christian priests, would not be able to find her.
1907 J. W. Schultz My Life as Indian xvii. 189 ‘I will pray to those gods for you. Long ago..a Blackrobe..taught me the way,’ and she began... 'Twas the Lord's prayer!
1990 R. Graham God's Dominion i. 28 Though they [sc. the Indians] sensed that the Black Robes undervalued the world of nature for the world beyond—most evident in the white man's klutziness as hunter and explorer—they were impressed by the magic of clocks and writing.
black root rot n. any of various plant diseases characterized black lesions on roots; spec. a disease of tobacco and other plants caused by the fungus Thielaviopsis basicola.
1901 Progress Beet-sugar Industry U.S. 1900 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 55 The fields of sugar beets during the past two or three seasons have been very much affected with what is termed ‘black root rot’.
1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work 208/2 Black root rot..is found most commonly on peas, violas and violets.
2002 Aiken (S. Carolina) Standard 31 Jan. 6 b/4 Black root rot usually makes its presence known soon after fall planting.
black rot n. †(a) a disease of sheep (perh. hepatic fascioliasis or black disease) (obs.); (b) any of various (typically fungal or bacterial) diseases of plants characterized by decay and black or dark brown discoloration of tissues, esp. that caused by the fungus Guignardia bidwellii in vines of the family Vitaceae.
1769 Lloyd's Evening Post 5–8 May 438/3 Belfast, April 29. An infallible cure for the disorder in horned cattle, called the Big Gaul,..has been also tried with success upon sheep for the Black Rot.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 260 They will bring limestone 14 or 15 miles, burn it, and sprinkle their potatoe land with it to prevent the black rot.
1809 Repertory Arts, Manufactures, & Agric. 14 343 Some people have been led to consider the rot as of two kinds, viz. the querney, or black rot, proceeding from foul feeding, and the hunger rot, from an absolute deficiency of food of every kind.
1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849: Agric. (U.S.) 438 In the southern part of the State winter apples are very liable to the black-rot, spots, [etc.].
1957 Encycl. Brit. X. 640/1 Europeans imported the American varieties [of vine], and thereby unwittingly imported phylloxera..and black rot (Guignardia bidwellii).
2000 Org. Gardening Sept.–Oct. 27/3 Black rot attacks leaves, shoots, tendrils, and young stems, which show small, dark, elliptical cankers.
black rum n. = dark rum n. at dark adj. Additions (cf. white rum n. at white adj. Special uses 1e).
1872 Overland Monthly June 506/2 The company own a number of vessels, and employ..from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, who receive about twenty cents per diem, their food, and a drink of black rum.
1976 Antioch Rev. 34 311 A shot or two of black rum at one or another of the ramshackle ‘clubs’.
2003 N.Y. Times Mag. 15 June ii. 46/2 Its Bermuda fish chowder may be the best I had—a combination of a tomato base with a purée of local fish, celery, onion, carrot, that I laced with local black rum.
black rust n. any of several plant rusts producing black discoloration, esp. the winter or teliospore stage of Puccinia graminis, a serious pathogen of wheat and other cereals.
1785 R. Baker Let. 27 July in Lett. & Papers Agric. (Bath & West of Eng. Soc.) (1788) 4 282 The bearer hereof, Richd Winsor, of Berry-Pomeroy, near Totnes.., has found out a method of curing the Black-Rust in wheat.
1887 Amer. Naturalist 21 1117 Farmers say the red rust of wheat produces comparatively slight injury, while the black rust is destructive.
1904 T. F. Hunt Cereals in Amer. vi. i. 96 There are two stages of rust found on the wheat plant:..(2) the black rust, caused by elongated two-celled teleutospores.
1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 35 This particular species [of barberry] has the misfortune to be the alternate host of the Black Rust of Wheat and it should not therefore, be planted in wheat-growing districts.
black scab n. any of several fungal diseases of plants causing rough, dark-coloured patches or outgrowths on the fruit, stem, etc.; esp. potato wart disease, caused by the soil-borne pathogen Synchytrium endobioticum (also called black wart).
1830 Western Agriculturalist p. xi, This is the true way to remove all excresences on fruit trees, especially the black scab from plum trees.
1884 Canad. Horticulturalist Feb. 33/1 The apple crop is very light; in some northern localities the fruit was attacked widely with black scab.
1908 Daily Chron. 30 Oct. 1/7 The disease of black scab is spreading alarmingly among potatoes.
2002 Scotsman (Nexis) 9 Oct. 16 Slugs and black scab have caused problems in some areas.
black scour n. (in sing. and pl.) bloody diarrhoea in livestock; esp. (in sheep) infestation with parasitic nematodes of the genus Trichostrongylus, and (in pigs) swine dysentery.
1749 W. Ellis Compl. Syst. Improvem. Sheep iii. v. 355 We reckon that the white Scour is catching, when the black Scour is not.
1847 Farmer's Mag. Sept. 208/2 As late in the season as the middle of October, my lambs lying as usual on cabbages, with plenty of clover-hay chaff, suddenly fell with the black scour.
1942 C. G. Grey & Dale U.S. Dept. Agric. Farmers' Bull. MCMXIV. 15 Swine Dysentery is also known as..bloody dysentery, bloody flux, black scours, and colitis.
1984 B. MacLaverty Cal 68 Brown stomach, lungworm, black scour, bankrupt worm.
2001 N. B. Haynes Keeping Livestock Healthy (ed. 4) vii. 161 Other names [for swine dysentery] are black scours and bloody scours.
black scurf n. any of several fungal diseases of plants causing black, scurf-like discoloration; esp. a disease of potatoes caused by Rhizoctonia solani in which small fungal growths appear on the skin of tubers.
1899 D. McAlpine Fungus Dis. Citrus Trees Austral. 132 Black Scurf of Citrus Fruits... This disease resembles one stage of Sooty Mould, only it does not peel off and leave the surface unbroken.
1903 Year-bk. Agric. 404 The same fungus causes black scurf of potato tubers.
1913 F. L. Stevens Fungi which cause Plant Dis. 504 C. scabrum McA. is the cause of black scurf of citrus fruit in Australia.
2005 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. (Nexis) 12 Mar. 38 Seed potato producers are being advised to consider treating stocks for black scurf, which is reportedly visible on 45% of tatties.
black section n. Brit. Polit. a grouping of non-white members of a Constituency Labour Party, aiming to represent the interests of non-whites; (also) such a grouping within the Labour Party as a whole.
1982 New Statesman 13 Aug. 9/1 What the party needs is..a black section within as an internal training-ground and pressure group, like the women's section and the Young Socialists.
1988 Parl. Affairs 41 319 The conference also overwhelmingly rejected proposals to set up Black sections within the party, a matter which had caused difficulty earlier in the year [sc. 1987].
1998 Independent (Nexis) 25 Sept. 7 It took a bitter struggle by the ‘Black Section’ campaign before any more black MPs—three African-Caribbean and one Asian—were elected in 1987.
2010 Guardian (Nexis) 9 June 29 My friends at..the Labour party black sections have worked their butts off to help increase the number of African Caribbean and Asian members of parliament.
black shale n. a dark-coloured, finely laminated carbonaceous shale rich in organic compounds.
1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 30 The Bodies through which they dig to come at the Vein are generally Limestone and Black Shale.
1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbyshire I. 399 The Black-shale flake..produces a bed of Ironstone, that has a good deal of Spar in veins or Septa in it.
1896 Trans. Federated Inst. Mining Engineers 10 483 It became evident that no coal-seam above the blackshale could be profitably worked on a large scale.
1951 Trans. Inst. Brit. Geographers No. 17. 146 In Derbyshire, centering on the Clay Cross-Chesterfield area, several seams are again of coking quality; the best is the Blackshale (= Silkstone).
2002 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Aug. 43/1 Some of this carbon becomes incorporated into sedimentary rocks such as black shales, the largest reservoir of organic matter on earth.
black sheet n. a piece of ungalvanized sheet iron.
1850 F. Overman Manuf. Iron v. 370 We have seen very beautiful sheet iron made from very cold-short iron containing phosphorus, and very cloudy- looking black sheets from the best and toughest charcoal iron.
1895 Daily News 18 Feb. 2/5 Black sheets for galvanisers.
1930 Engineering 21 Feb. 254/3 In the black-sheet trade.
2004 A. E. Mosher Capital's Utopia ii. iv. 97 In 1897, the total capacity of the new mill was 70,000 gross tons of ingots, 96,000 gross tons of sheet bars, 38,000 tons of black sheets and 51,000 tons of galvanized sheets.
black shoe n. U.S. Navy slang a surface naval officer, as opposed to an aviator or submariner; freq. attrib., esp. in black-shoe navy. [With reference to the black shoes which formerly distinguished the uniform of the sailor from that of the aviator, who wore brown shoes: see brown shoe n. at brown adj. Additions.]
1950 Los Angeles Times 26 Jan. 8/2 All of us in the Navy must avoid using such terms as black-shoe Navy, trade-school boys, mustangs, [etc.].
1962 J. E. Quirk No Red Ribbons iv. 25 You fellows Black Shoes?.. He don't like nobody that can't fly and's got rank.
1989 J. Q. Wilson Bureaucracy ii. vi. 106 The ‘black shoe’ navy is the navy of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers,..built to protect the sea lanes and bombard enemy shores.
1994 T. Clancy Debt of Honor xxi. 335 Fortunately, his chief engineer was a black-shoe destroyer sailor with a command under his belt.
2005 W. B. Johnson & G. P. Harper Becoming Leader Annapolis Way i. 22 ‘Black shoes’ sailed at 30 Knots, whereas ‘brown shoes’ flew at 300 knots.
black-sick adj. now chiefly hist. (in oyster farming) designating female-phase larviparous oysters whose mantle chamber contains almost fully developed larvae having the appearance of a dark mass.
1667 T. Sprat Hist. Royal-Soc. 209 The Male-Oyster is black-sick, having a black substance in the Fin.
1869 J. G. Jeffreys Brit. Conchol. 5 165 The most forward, or ‘black sick’, easily opened, and have evidently lost much of their muscular power.
1896 M. Hartog in S. F. Harmer & A. E. Shipley Cambr. Nat. Hist. III. iv. 114 The old view, that ‘black-sick’ oysters are the male..is therefore quite incorrect.
1977 Harpers & Queen Nov. 275/4 Fertilised eggs, which oyster farmers call..white, grey or black sick, depending on how ripe it is.
2002 N. Milner Incremental Growth of European Oyster 70 When oysters are incubating eggs they are described as being ‘white-sick’, ‘grey-sick’ and finally ‘black-sick’ due to changes in the pigment in the digestive tubules.
black silicon n. a form of silicon with a modified surface structure resembling an array of microscopic cones, giving it very effective absorption of visible light and infrared.
1986 Microelectronic Engin. 5 387 The so called black silicon occurring in a pure Cl2 plasma is caused by micro masking by Al-, Si- oxide clusters which stem from surface absorbed oxygen and the alumina covered cathode.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 12 Oct. (Business section) 4/2 Black silicon has since been found to have extreme sensitivity to light.
black silk n. now hist. (attrib.) designating a later period of mourning during which black silk is worn instead of crape.
1894 Daily News 22 Nov. 8/1 Deep crape and distinctive headgear have been dropped at the end of six months, the period known technically as ‘black silk’ then setting in.
black smallpox n. [after post-classical Latin variolae nigrae (1662 or earlier)] a severe form of smallpox with haemorrhage into the skin.
[1672 J. Josselyn New-Englands Rarities 63 The Black Pox, the Spotted Feaver, the Griping of the Guts, the Dropsie, and the Sciatica, are the killing Deseases in New-England.]
1696 J. Pechey tr. T. Sydenham Whole Wks. iv. vi. 160 Not long a go a very Virtuous and Noble Lady was committed to my care, who had the dangerous black Small-pox [L. Variolis nigris & mali moris laborantem].
1753 P. Shaw New Pract. Physic (ed. 7) I. 145 These eruptions are frequently depressed in the middle, and there turn black; from whence the black small-pox.
1871 Med. News & Libr. 29 166/1 In the black smallpox all treatment is useless.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) x. 268 In very severe cases there may be toxic capillaritis with cutaneous purpuric hæmorrhage, the so-called ‘black’ smallpox.
2005 T. Reiss Orientalist (2006) iii. 73 The captains called the disease black smallpox, though Lev thought it could just as well have been the plague.
black smoker n. Oceanogr. a deep-sea hydrothermal vent which ejects water rich in black particles consisting chiefly of sulphide minerals; (also) a chimney or similar structure created at such a vent by the deposition of minerals; cf. white smoker n. at white adj. Additions.
[1980 F. N. Spiess et al. in Science 28 Mar. 1425/1 Edifices atop the mounds are classed as either black or white, and those venting particulates are dubbed smokers.]
1980 F. N. Spiess et al. in Science 28 Mar. 1425/1 (caption) The black smoker is similar to that shown on the cover, at which 380° ± 30℃ water temperatures were measured.
1987 F. Jackson & P. Moore Life in Universe ii. 66 Recent explorations of the sea bed have revealed the presence of unusual local conditions where hot vents (named black smokers) occur.
2007 T. Friend Third Domain vii. 199, I found archaea living in deep sea hot vents with their spectacular black smokers.
black soap n. any of various types of dark-coloured soap; spec. (a) a soft soap made from alkali and animal blubber or fish oil (now hist.); (b) a soap originating in Africa made from the ashes of certain leaves and bark together with oils such as shea butter, palm oil, or coconut oil.
c1425 tr. J. Arderne Treat. Fistula (Sloane 6) 40 (MED), Ane oyntement made of blakke sope and poudre of bole.
1526 Treasure of Pore Men f. xxxiv, Take blacke sope in a clene cloth and put it in yelowe pysse & then anoynte the morfewe therwith.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 364 Then washe him twice with blacke Sope.
1669 J. Blagrave Epitome Art of Husbandry 108 Take Butter, black Sope, and Hemlockherb, with a quantity of Salt and Oyl proportionable, then mix them altogether.
1704 Dict. Rusticum (at cited word), For black Soap, it is made with strong Lye..and Whale or Fish Oil, commonly called Train-oil.
1826 Glasgow Mechanics' Mag. 29 Apr. 136/2 Cottons which have received stains of oil are best cleared by a hot solution of black soap.
1942 V 27 60 Brazilian ex-slaves..would bring to be sold in Brazil such African products as kola nuts, palm oil, black soap, [etc.].
2006 Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel (Nexis) 7 Mar., Students plan to make the so-called ‘black soap’ following a traditional Ghanaian recipe.
black soil n. soil or earth that is black; a rich, dark soil, spec. = chernozem n.; freq. attrib.; cf. black earth n.
1700 C. Leigh Nat. Hist. Lancs. i. iii. 55 These Countries afford us various sorts of Earths, but the most noted are the Black Soil, the Foxglove-Earth, and the Clay-Earth.
1845 R. I. Murchison et al. Geol. Russia in Europe I. xxii. 559 The black soil does not, however, occupy all the vast country alluded to.
1908 N. M. Tulaïkoff in Jrnl. Agric. Sci. 3 82 Black soils (Tchernozem)..cover generally the grassy steppe or prairies of the temperate zone.
1914 H. I. Jensen Soils of New S. Wales x. 47 In Australia we can find..black-soil plains (pasture and agriculture, maize and gourds).
1959 M. Hastings Hour-glass to Eternity i. ii. 40 What we call black soil areas. They're covered in kunai grass..no trees will grow in that soil.
1972 V. Priddle Dung on his Boots 145 Our bullock camp was black soil and starting to get very boggy.
2000 Land (N. Richmond, New S. Wales) 1 June (Trader section) 28/3 (advt.) Excellent all seasons mixture of river country, black soil channels, billabongs, cowells.
† black-sole n. Sc. Obs. a go-between; = Blackfoot n. 2.
1725 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd iii. iii, This too fond heart o' mine..a black-sole true to thee.
1822 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. Oct. 436/1 Adam Dinwoodie fills the right honourable situation of secretary, or black sole, to Aggie and her gallant.
1834 A. Cunningham in R. Burns Wks. II. 310 On this occasion he forgets the duty of poetic ‘black-sole’, and absolutely courts a young lady for a friend, in very persuasive rhyme.
black south-easter n. S. Afr. (esp. in the Western Cape) a violent south-easterly wind.
1836 T. Maclear Observ. Halley's Comet 6 Feb. in Mem. Royal Astron. Soc. (1838) 10 126 Wind violent—a ‘black south-easter’.
1870 Cape Monthly Mag. Dec. 357 Then we are sometimes blessed with a black south-easter... The mountain is then quite buried in cloud, the air is laden with moisture, the winds run howling hither and thither,..the rain descends.
1950 L. G. Green At Daybreak for Isles vi. 74 In the middle of January 1844 a ‘black south-easter’, the wind most feared in summer on this coast, forced most of the fleet to run for open sea.
2010 Cape Times (Nexis) 22 Feb. (Sport section) 22 The runners battled in stormy conditions as they were buffeted by a black south-easter on the switchback course around the southern tip of the Peninsula.
black spring n. Austral. a spring arising from rich dark soil; now chiefly in place names.
1847 Melbourne Argus 27 July 3/2 In consequence the cattle and sheep eat the soil which surround the numerous springs, commonly called black springs.
1878 J. W. Bull Early Experiences Life S. Austral. x. 55, I..passed over a saddle, on the western side of which I discovered the Black Springs, as they are now called.
2005 Sunday Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 20 Mar. 11 Warby Range State Park has many viewing points, picnic spots and walking trails, including..Black Springs—a natural source of permanent water in the park.
Black Spy n. cant (now arch.) (with the) the Devil.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, Black spy,..the Devil.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Black spy, the devil.
1896 L. C. Cornford Capt. Jacobus iii. 37 For drinking, roaring drunk, hand-to-fist, and raising the Black Spy in general, commend me to the Mul-Sack's crew.
2009 L. R. Burkard House in Grosvenor Square xiii. 140 ‘Ye're the Black Spy, ain't cha!’ ‘The what?’ ‘Old Nick! Old Harry. The devil 'imself!’
black-step n. Printing attrib. relating to or designating thick black marks printed at progressively differing positions on the fold of the outer leaf of each section (section n. 2f), and used as a guide to collating the sections in the correct order for binding.
1946 A. Monkman in H. Whetton Pract. Printing iv. 56/2 Another style of signature which has become popular in bookwork offices is known as the black-step method... A piece of rule, about 6 points thick and 24 points long, is placed between the first and last pages (or spine) of each section... For the first section the rule would be positioned opposite the top line of text. The next section would have the rule stepped down, say 24 points, and so on through the sections.
1994 D. C. Greetham Textual Scholarship (new ed.) iii. 135 Black-step collation marks may be used instead of signatures as a guide to the binder.
black stone n. Islam the sacred stone which is embedded in the eastern corner of the Kaaba.
1704 J. Pitts True Acct. Mohammetans 82 At one Corner of the Beat there is a black Stone fastned, and fram'd in with silver Plate, and every time they come to that Corner they kiss the Stone.
1862 Times 25 Aug. 9/4 We at once advanced to the Black Stone embedded in an angle of the Kábah, kissed it, and exclaimed, ‘Bismillah wa Allahu Akbar.’
1933 Columbia Law Rev. 33 199 The great Omar performed the tawaf around the Ka'ba in Mecca, and kissed the black stone there enshrined.
2000 Z. Smith White Teeth vi. 152 You come with me on haj. If I am to touch that black stone before I die I will do it with my eldest son by my side.
black stripe n. (a) = blackstrap n. 1; (b) a disease of tomatoes caused by the fungus Alternaria solani, in which blackish lines appear on the stem followed by widespread necrosis (now rare).
1862 J. Thomas How to mix Drinks 78 Black stripe... 1 wine-glass of Santa Cruz rum. 1 table-spoonful of molasses. This drink can be made either in summer or winter.
1894 Garden 11 Aug. 119/2 Black stripe, for as yet I know of no other name for it, is to a certain extent infectious.
1900 G. J. Kappeler Mod. Amer. Drinks (new ed.) 22 Black stripe. One teaspoonful molasses, one small lump ice, one jigger Jamaica, Medford, or St. Croix rum. Mix well in small bar-glass.
1927 Smallholder 26 Mar. 104/2 If any [tomato plants] have very finely cut, lace-like leaves, take them out... These plants have contracted Black Stripe disease.
2003 M. H. Regan Bartender's Best Friend 85 Black stripe..is a very old drink, probably first served in the 1700s when sugar, molasses, and Caribbean rum were available ingredients in the newly settled America.
black studies n. chiefly U.S. the study of African or African-American culture, history, etc., esp. as an academic subject or course.
1968 Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 25 Jan. 8/1 The trustees should ‘assert some leadership by means of policy statements’ calling for courses in ‘black studies’.
1969 College Composition & Communication 20 265 We urge that CCCC and NCTE work to include preparation for student teachers which will lead to black studies for black students, working class studies for working class students, women's studies, etc.
1973 W. Baskin & R. N. Runes Dict. Black Culture 53 Black studies..now include courses in African history and religions, Swahili, and Afro-American literature, economics, and social and political thought.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 7 Dec. 1/1 Women's studies and black studies are now seen as serious areas of academic inquiry.
2004 Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Sept. a 27/2 In the 1990s, Gates set out to create a premier black studies department at Harvard, assembling a ‘dream team’ of academics.
black stump n. [the original black stump has been variously but inconclusively identified since 1826 (compare 1970 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 22 Feb. 27)] Austral. colloq. a place imagined to be the last outpost of civilization, usu. in this side of the black stump.
[1884 Argus (Melbourne) 8 Oct. 6/5 Mr. Gillies.—..The bill of 1882 proposed to stop that [railway] line at a portion of the district where there was no considerable population. Mr. Mason.—A black stump. (Laughter.)
1889 Mercury (Hobart) 21 May, Some of those lines terminate at places which, though not quite like the proverbial ‘black stump’ of Victoria, are almost as bad.]
1953 Sydney Morning Herald 23 Jan. 12/3 (advt.) Here is the greatest buy this side of the black stump.
1956 ‘N. Shute’ (title) Beyond the black stump.
1975 X. Herbert Poor Fellow my Country 1149 I've been played for the biggest mug this side o' the Black Stump.
2009 Canberra Times (Nexis) 25 June, We were living out beyond the black stump there was nothing to do.
black sugar n. (a) brown sugar n. at brown adj. Special uses 2; (b) Sc. liquorice or liquorice juice.
c1430 Two Cookery-bks. 7 Take blake sugre, an cold water.
1696 J. Ovington Voy. Suratt 238 Another Compound-Liquor made in India, which is distilled from Black Sugar mixt with Water, with the bark of the Tree Baboul.
1787 J. Beattie Scoticisms 15 Black sugar, Licuorice juice.
1864 J. Brown Plain Words Health v. 76 A bit of black sugar.
1877 Sugar Cane 2 July 352 Any marked difference as to good or inferior kinds of black sugar depends on the quality of the cane and the skill of the workmen.
1920 J. K. Mackenzie Story of Fortunate Youth 21 We..are much disillusioned when we learn that black sugar stamped with a seal is just nothing but licorice.
1999 A. Arndt Seasoning Savvy 145 This substance obtained from boiling down licorice juice, sometimes called ‘black sugar’, is the traditional basis for licorice cough drops, syrups, and candies.
2000 W. Lianmao in D. Selbourne tr. J. D'Ancona City of Light xii. 463 Black sugar refers to a type of milled sugar... Jacob could certainly have purchased black sugar in Quanzhou
black tar n. U.S. slang an exceptionally pure form of heroin originating in Mexico.
1983 Tri-City Herald (Pasco, Washington) 12 Oct. b2/2 He pleaded innocent to one heroin selling charge filed in connection with the alleged sale on Aug. 11 of ¼ gram of ‘black tar’ heroin to an undercover informant.
1986 Economist 7 June 37/3 What makes black tar heroin unique is that it has a single, foreign source—Mexico—and finds its way into Mexican-American distribution networks, often via illegal immigrants.
1996 Sunday Santa Fe New Mexican 14 Apr. b4/3 For reasons not completely known, botulism in heroin only seems to show up in Mexican black tar.
2006 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) (Herald-Times ed.) 9 July a6/2 Two types of heroin seen locally are ‘brown powder’ and ‘black tar’.
black taxi n. = black cab n.
1911 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 4 Dec. 6/3 A black taxi drew up at the curb and three men sprang out.
1968 A. Ginsberg Planet News 100 A high black taxi with orange doorlight passes around iron railing blazoned with red sigma Underground.
1993 Guardian 25 Oct. i. 1/4 The loyalists do shootings in bookies and black taxis with kids inside.
2006 G. Malkani Londonstani xii. 140 Now you can stretch to a proper, shiny black taxi.
black tea n. (a) tea that is fully fermented before drying, and typically dark in colour; cf. green tea n. at green adj. and n.1 Special uses 4a; (b) tea served without milk or cream; cf. sense A. 2e.
1706 tr. E. Y. Ides Three Years Trav. Moscow to China 44 The better sort drink Kara't Za, or black Tea, which is a particular Species of that Plant, the infusion of which, instead of greenish, tinctures the water blackish.
1854 W. Williamson Dis. Females & Children 5 Pure water, toast water, gum arabic water, weak black tea, cocoa and plain chocolate.
1888 J. Paton Tea in Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 97/2 Black and green tea are made indifferently from the leaves of the same plant.
1937 Amer. Home Apr. 122/4 In Ceylon and India most of the tea is black tea, while in China and Japan green tea represents more than half of the manufacture.
1963 R. L. Bacon In Sticks 89 The foreman nodded..squinting up at us from where he sat nursing a mug of black tea. ‘Goodday, mates. Like a mug of brew?’
2003 Time 5 May 86/4 Black tea contains..complex antioxidants called theaflavins and thearubigins.
2008 S. Heaney in D. O'Driscoll Stepping Stones ii. viii. 232 They would walk the whole way to Donegal, keeping going on black tea and dry bread.
black theology n. orig. U.S. an interpretation of Christianity which promotes the liberation of black people from oppression, racism, and poverty; cf. liberation theology n.
1968 Independent (Pasadena, Calif.) 11 Nov. 5/2 To restore the purity of original Christianity, ‘black theology’ wants to roll back many of the major characteristics of Christianity.
1969 J. H. Cone Black Theol. & Black Power ii. 31 There is, then, a desperate need for a black theology, a theology whose sole purpose is to apply the freeing power of the gospel to black people under white oppression.
1986 R. Fatton Black Consciousness in S. Afr. v. 107 Christianity, according to the dominant theme of Black Theology, was imbued with the legacy of Jesus' identification with the oppressed, and Jesus' condemnation of the powers that be.
2000 W. J. Jennings in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 74/1 Liberation, as the link between theology and sociopolitical agendas, has always been an important concept for black theology.
black tin n. [compare post-classical Latin stagnum nigrum, stannum nigrum (1195, 1508 in British sources)] Mining tin ore (usually cassiterite, SnO2) prepared for smelting, as distinct from metallic tin; cf. white tin n. at white adj. Special uses 1c(b).
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 13v, They measure their blacke Tynne, by the Gill, the Topliffe, the Dish and the Foote.
1767 Philos. Trans. 1766 (Royal Soc.) 56 37 The best tin ore..will not melt without flux, nor do twenty pounds of black tin usually produce more than fourteen pounds of white.
1865 E. Burritt Walk to Land's End 320 The mine produces about 430 tons of black tin annually.
1936 Times 16 July 25/6 Geevor Tin.—Results for the three months ended June 30:—Tons of ore crushed, 14,267; tons of black tin (65 per cent. sn.) produced, 250.
2005 Frontier Star (Pakistan) (Nexis) 10 Dec., Total exemption of custom duty and sales tax on import of black tin used as raw material for manufacturing of tinplate.
black tobacco n. strong, dark tobacco.
1698 tr. L. Hennepin Continuation xxviii. 108 in New Discov. in Amer., I presented them with two Fathoms of black Tobacco, which they love mightily; theirs is not so well prepar'd, nor so strong as that of Martenico.
1790 E. Umfreville Present State Hudson's Bay 63 Let us trade good black tobacco, moist and hard twisted.
1897 F. W. Sykes With Plumer in Matabeleland 103 A half-pound cake of black tobacco fetched £2.
1977 C. Wagley Welcome of Tears i. 8, I was able to complete my purchases—among them beans, rice, rapadura,..salt, and coils of black tobacco.
2002 Carcinogenesis 23 1994/2 Haemoglobin adducts of 15 different aromatic amines were determined in non-smokers and smokers of blond- or black-tobacco cigarettes.
black tongue n. chiefly U.S. (originally) any of various diseases or disorders exhibiting a dark discoloration of the tongue, esp. blackleg in livestock or (more fully black tongue fever) typhus, typhoid, or meningococcal meningitis in humans; (in later use also) niacin deficiency, esp. in livestock or domestic animals; pellagra.
1833 Let. 30 Dec. in Thomsonian Recorder (1834) 18 Jan. 114/2 There is a disease prevalent in various parts of the United States, among cattle and horses, called the Black Tongue.
1843 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 6 250 There were several more cases [of typhus fever] in the immediate vicinity equally fatal, which received the very expressive title of Black tongue fever or Black fever.
1858 C. L. Flint Milch Cows (1860) 281 Typhoid fever..is sometimes followed by diseases known as black tongue, black leg, or quarter evil.
1919 J. P. Dunn Indiana II. 804 In 1842–3 epidemic erysipelas prevailed in a number of counties in southern Indiana, and was known by a number of popular names, as ‘black tongue’, ‘sore throat’, etc.
1936 Jrnl. Nutrition 11 75 Fractions prepared from liver extract which were rich in vitamin G (B2) and from which the hepatoflavin had been removed..were very active in the cure of black tongue.
2003 Dis.-a-month 49 661 Acute black tongue was first demonstrated in dogs, with similar observations in swine.
black tooth n. N. Amer. (now rare) decay of one or more teeth in young pigs; localized bacterial infection or sepsis associated with this.
1851 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 20 Aug. 68 A disease known as the black tooth, has proved very fatal to swine at St. Johns, N. B.
1877 Rep. Vermont Dairymen's Assoc. 8 107 Black tooth is a popular disease of swine.
1918 Amer. Jrnl. Vet. Med. 13 60/2 In so-called ‘black tooth’, where shedding of the temporary tusks does not take place, the loosened tooth predisposes to infection.
black tracker n. Austral. (now chiefly hist.) an Australian Aboriginal employed by police to track down fugitives or persons lost in the bush.
1862 Melbourne Leader 5 July, The black trackers could only discover the tracks of six horsemen.
1867 J. Morison Austral. 88 The native police, or ‘black trackers’,..are a body of aborigines trained to act as policemen.
1952 R. E. Robinson in Coast to Coast 1951–2 213 The black-tracker, in his police boy's shirt, trousers, and hat, was with them.
1988 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 30 Sept., Northern Territory police have called in black trackers to search for a man alleged to have shot and killed six members of his family at a remote outstation in Arnhem Land.
2006 Cairns (Queensland) Weekend Post (Nexis) 11 Feb. 5 Dr Musgrave was one of the last of the recognised ‘black trackers’. In 1960 he found the little boy lost in Australia's most famous search, at Guyra, New South Wales.
black trader factory n. rare (now hist.) a trading station run by Africans, serving as an intermediary between African suppliers and European traders; cf. factory n. 1a.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. xiv. 310 Here, in the black trader factory, you see the first stage of the export part of the trade.
1989 V. G. Myer Victorian Lady in Afr. xii. 137 A black trader factory was a fascinating place to stay.
black tripe n. unbleached tripe.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier i. i. 7 The grey flocculent stuff known as ‘black tripe’.
1992 E. Pearce Election Rides xv. 149 The commodities at the cooked-meat stall could only, outside Normandy, be offered in Lancashire—black tripe, cow-heel pieces (for the piemaking), little spherical black puddings and not pigs' trotters but, of course, pigs' feet.
black turf n. (a) peat, esp. as used for fuel (cf. turf n.1 3); (b) a dark clayey soil found in parts of southern Africa (also black turf soil); cf. black cotton soil n. [With South African use compare Dutch turf peat: see turf n.1]
a1650 G. Boate Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) xx. 155 Black Turf cannot be made without more trouble. First they mark out convenient places; for onely those are fit for it to which some paths do lead.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 30 Adjoining to it is a black turf bog of admirable use for firing.
1850 Brit. Farmer's Mag. 22 222/1 For steam purposes the black turf is admirably adapted.
1897 ‘Cios’ Life Afrikanderland xxxiv. 102 The sticky black soil was coating the wheels to such a degree that..the wheels had no spokes, but became a solid mass of black turf.
1906 Transvaal Agric. Jrnl. Oct. 150 Heavy clay soils and black turf soils which become hard in dry weather are also apt to produce badly-shaped and dirty roots.
1982 H. H. Glassie Passing Time in Ballymenone xvi. 475 Black turf burns longest and hottest.
2005 L. Prendini in B. A. Huber et al. Afr. Biodiversity 43 In contrast, Chelectonus jonesii, a liochelid common in black turf soils.., is a pedipalpal burrower.
black velvet n. (a) Austral. and N.Z. slang (offensive) an Aboriginal or Maori woman as the focus of a white man's sexual interest; sexual intercourse with such a woman; such women collectively; (b) a drink made by mixing stout and champagne.
1900 H. Lawson Verses Pop. & Humorous 57, I know the track from Spencer's Gulf and north of Cooper's Creek—Where falls the half-caste to the strong, ‘black velvet’ to the weak.
1926 G. Frankau My Unsentimental Journey i. 24 ‘Black velvet’ of stout and champagne.
1929 K. S. Prichard Coonardoo vii. 79 ‘No “black velvet” for you, I suppose?’ ‘I'm goin' to marry white and stick white,’ Hugh said.
1930 H. Craddock Savoy Cocktail Bk. i. 29 Black velvet. Use long tumbler. ½ Guinness Stout. ½ Champagne.
1942 E. Waugh Put out More Flags 45 Young men..gulping Black Velvet.
1948 D. Ballantyne Cunninghams ii. xx. 263 I'd like a nice piece of black velvet... One of those quarter-castes, boy.
1990 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Oct. 20/4 Jack..is part-Aboriginal and the descendant of Hamish, a lecherous Scot who, as it is delicately put, liked black velvet.
2009 Olive Sept. 15/1 Sit at the street-side counter for rock oysters and a foaming tankard of Black Velvet—Guinness and Champagne.
black-wall adj. and n. (a) adj. (of a tyre) having black sidewalls; (b) n. a black-wall tyre.
1939 Fortune Oct. 80/2 A Davis Safety-Grip six-ply black-wall tire.
1948 San Antonio (Texas) Express 24 Sept. 7/4 (advt.) Cushion-aire tires... Size 6.70 x 16 blackwalls.
2006 M. Antonick Corvette Black Bk. 1953-2007 47 With blackwalls, wheels were painted body color.
2007 P. Keresture Perspective 35 A black-wall tire and a silver wheel cover with imitation spokes.
black wart n. (more fully black wart disease) = black scab n.
1846 Cultivator Aug. 258/2 At a late meeting in Boston, John Owen of Cambridge, stated he cured the black wart on plum trees by cutting off and washing in salt water.
1950 L. E. Hawker Physiol. Fungi viii. 240 Some, such as Synchytrium endobioticum, which causes the black-wart disease of the potato..are obligate parasites and exist in the soil only as spores.
2004 J. W. Taylor et al. in J. Cracraft & M. J. Donoghue Assembling Tree of Life 184/1 This parasite causes a malformation of potato tubers known as black wart.
Black Watch n. [perhaps so called from the dark-coloured tartan adopted by the regiment] (formerly) the Royal Highland Regiment of the British army; (now) the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.The Black Watch ceased to exist as a regiment in its own right in 2006.
1739 Lord Lovat Let. 7 Apr. in W. Fraser Chiefs of Grant (1883) II. 380 My dear Frank..is not to stay any time in what you call the Black Watch. I think it is a right name to us, for we are represented very black to our Generall.
1822 D. Stewart Sketches Highlanders Scotl. iii. §1 The 42nd Highland Regiment..was originally known by the name of Black Watch. It arose from the colour of their dress.
1871 Princess Alice Mem. 12 Sept. (1884) 273 We did not see the 42nd Highlanders, the ‘Black Watch’, to-day.
1952 Times 22 Nov. 5/2 Eighth Army censorship to-day released details of the action by the Black Watch in defending the position known as the Hook..some 30 miles north of Seoul.
1986 Linlithgowshire Jrnl. & Gaz. 17 July 3/2 The ancient Abbey of Inchcolm was the destination of 100 members of the Black Watch Regiment and their families.
2004 Metro (London ed.) 5 Nov. 1/1 Three Black Watch soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack yesterday—the first casualties since they struck out for Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death.
Black Week n. the week of 10 to 17 December 1899 during the Boer War (1899–1902), in which the British Army suffered defeats at Stormberg, Magersfontein, and Colenso.
1899 Daily News 18 Dec. 4/4 In view of the series of reverses during the Black Week it was decided to send out new Generals and more men.
1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Apr. 490/3 Black Week..brought a decade of cheap military victories to a dismal close.
2002 Victorian Stud. 44 314 Press and politicians alike looked forward to an easy campaign which would be over by Christmas. The events of ‘Black Week’..shattered this complacency.
black witch n. a witch who practises black magic; one who uses witchcraft for malicious purposes; opposed to white witch.
1645 J. Cleveland Char. London Diurnall 1 It differs..as a black Witch doth from a white one, whose office is to unravell her inchantments.
1730 W. Forbes Inst. Law Scotl. II. i. ii. 34 The bad Witch, commonly called the black Witch..is one who, by a League with the Devil, is assisted by him to work Mischief.
1862 Times 25 Sept. 6/3 The black witch hurt only the body and the estate.
1972 ‘Zolar’ Hist. Astrol. viii. 140 The white witch practiced only healing arts: she removed warts, cured fits, counteracted spells laid on cattle by bad or ‘black’ witches.
2010 Sun (Nexis) 12 Oct. 2 There's no such things as white or black witches.
b. In the names of birds. See also blackbird n., black cap n. 2, blackcock n., blackpoll n., black swan n. 2, etc.
black brant n. a brent goose of the subspecies Branta bernicla nigricans, having a very dark back and head and strongly contrasting white flank and breeding in Alaska.Formerly regarded as a separate species.
1805 W. Clark Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1990) VI. 53 My Servt. York killed 2 Geese & 8 white, black and Speckle Brants.
1922 V. Stefánsson My Life with Eskimo 469 East of Richard Island the Black Brant and Longspurs had just begun to lay.
1999 Birdwatch Apr. 21/1 Rare and distinctive subspecies like Black Brant, Green-winged Teal and Black-headed Wagtail.
black cockatoo n. any of several large, predominantly black, Australian cockatoos constituting the genus Calyptorhynchus (family Cacatuidae), formerly regarded as subspecies of C. funereus; also (more fully great black cockatoo) the palm cockatoo, Probosciger aterrimus, of the same family.
1764 G. Edwards Gleanings Nat. Hist. III. 28 The Great Black Cockatoo.
1846 J. Gould Birds Austral. (1848) V. Pl. 13 Calyptorhynchus baudinii... White-tailed Black Cockatoo of the Colonists.
1896 B. Spencer Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Central Austral. I. 31 At the Goyder was secured the first specimen of the Western black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus stellulatus), which does not appear to extend further south than this.
1930 W. M. Mann Wild Animals in & out of Zoo xx. 253 The great black cockatoo from New Guinea contrasts sharply with the great white cockatoo from the Moluccas.
2003 L. Glaister in D. Adebayo et al. New Writing 12 193 A couple of crows and a flock of black cockatoos hop about, suddenly scuttering upwards, flashing scarlet underwings.
black curlew n. Eng. regional (east.) and U.S. regional (south.) a dark coloured ibis of the genus Plegadis; esp. the glossy ibis, P. falcinellus.
1829 J. Chambers Gen. Hist. Norfolk I. p. lxvi, Tantalus ignens—Glossy Ibis... Mr. Norman has one, which was killed at Cromer, and sold to him under the name of the Black Curlew.
1905 Country-side 15 July 158/2 The glossy ibis is known in East Anglia as the black curlew.
1928 F. A. Bailey Birds New Mexico 101 At a distance they [sc. white-faced glossy ibises] looked black enough to justify their common local name Black Curlew.
1951 E. W. Teale North with Spring 34 To natives of the region [sc. Florida] the glossy ibis, with its dark plumage and downcurving bill, is the ‘black curlew’.
black duck n. any of several ducks with predominantly dark brown or blackish plumage; esp. (a) (more fully American black duck) Anas rubripes of eastern North America, which has a pale head; (b) (more fully Pacific black duck) A. superciliosa of Australasia and Indonesia, which has a striped head.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes IV. x. vi. 1873 Numbers of seuerall sorts of Wild-fowle, as Wild-goose, Black-Duck, Woodcock, Herron, Pigeon.
1731 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina I. p. xxxvii/1 The Black Duck is considerably bigger than the common Wild Duck, and is esteemed preferable to it for the goodness of its flesh.
1829 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. III. 326 Anas perspicillata. Black, or Surf Duck... This Duck is peculiar to America, and altogether confined to the shores and bays of the sea.
1852 J. Macgillivray Narr. Voy. H.M.S. Rattlesnake I. 55 Anas superciliosa, the `black duck' of the colonists, the richest and best flavoured of the Australian water-fowl.
1867 W. B. Tegetmeier Poultry Bk. xxviii. 308 (heading) The Cayuga, or large American black duck.
1907 ‘N. Blanchan’ Birds Every Child should Know xvii. 269 In every slough where..black duck and pintails settle down to rest in the autumn, gunners wait concealed in the sedges.
1986 K. F. Walker in B. R. Davies & K. F. Walker Ecol. River Syst. xiii. 652 Pacific black duck and other ‘sedentary’ species frequent permanent swamps and waterways.
2001 Canoe & Kayak Mar. 71/1 Wings of common merganser, American black duck, and common goldeneye whir softly in passing.
black eagle n. an eagle with chiefly black plumage; esp. (a) Verreaux's eagle, Aquila verreauxii, of Africa; (b) (more fully Indian black eagle)Ictinaetus malayensis, of tropical Asia.The black eagle of Homer and Aristotle (see quot. a1797) is probably Verreaux's eagle.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 8 The trayne of the Egle Royall, as also the trayne of the slender blacke Egle, is short and stiffe at the poynt, euen as the traine of the Vulture is.
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 783 There is one kinde of gentle faulcons or roiall eagles bred in the mountaines, which Homer calleth the Blacke eagle for game.
a1797 J. Parkhurst Hebrew & Eng. Lexicon (1799) 520/2 The black eagle, so called, according to Bockhart, from it's great strength in proportion to it's size. Thus Homer describes it... The same account is given of it by Aristotle, Pliny, and other writers.
1816 Times 11 Sept. 3/2 The sculls of a sea-horse and bear, the ear of a whale, and the preserved skin of a black eagle.
1906 A. O. Hume Nests & Eggs Indian birds 131 The female, shot on the nest, was sent to me—an old, unmistakable, black Eagle, with conspicuous white scapular patches.
1951 Cape Argus 20 Oct. (Mag.) 2/4 Most difficult of all birds to shoot, Hoesch found, was the black eagle or dassievanger.
1970 S. T. Satyamurti Guide Bird Gallery 102 The Indian Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis perniger) is a graceful long winged bird.
2006 P. Ryan Birdwatching Southern Afr. (new ed.) iii. 27 Verreauxs' Eagle was called Black Eagle in southern Africa, but its East African name was preferred to avoid confusion with the Indian Black Eagle Ictinaetus malayensis.
black hawk n. chiefly N. Amer. any of various American buzzards of the genera Buteo and Buteogallus with predominantly blackish plumage;esp. (a) the American rough-legged buzzard, Buteo lagopus sanctijohannis, of North America; (b) (more fully common black hawk) Buteogallus anthracinus, found from the southern United States to Central America.In quot. 1743 perh.: a falcon.
1743 G. Edwards Nat. Hist. Birds I. 4 (heading) The Black Hawk or Falcon.
1774 W. Bartram Trav. Georgia & Florida in Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. (1943) 33 165/1 The Black Hawk is about the size of the Chicken Hawk, they are all over a dark slate colour appearing perfectly black.
1832 Dublin Penny Jrnl. 1 Sept. 78/1 But I cannot describe how beautiful their aerial evolutions were, if a black hawk appeared in their rear.
1872 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (1884) 549 American ‘Rough-legged Buzzard’ ‘Black Hawk’.
1970 R. M. de Schauensee Guide Birds S. Amer. 47/1 Common black hawk... Black, base of primaries white.
1994 R. Hendrickson Happy Trails 24 Black hawk. A dark-colored, red-tailed hawk (Buteo calurus) native to the West. The name is also given to the Mexican black hawk, Swainson's hawk and Harris's hawk.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 49/2 The Common black-hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) has a wingspan greater than 4 feet and is found in cottonwood groves in Arizona.
black-heart plover n. Canad. (now rare) the dunlin, Calidris alpina, which has a black belly in the breeding season.
1866 T. McIlwraith List Birds Hamilton, Canada West 92 Pelidna americana Coues. Red-backed Sandpiper. This is the Black-heart Plover of sportsmen.
1878 H. Scadding Toronto of Old xiv. 194 The Island, just across the Bay, where the black-heart plover were said always to arrive on a particular day, the 23rd of May, every year.
1919 Auk 36 265 Pelidna alpina. Red-backed Sandpiper.—Mr. Farley reports ‘Black-heart Plover’ May 11, 1899 at Red Deer. This is an old South Ontario name for this species.
black kite n. a partly migratory kite, Milvus migrans, which has chiefly dark plumage and a slightly forked tail, and is found throughout much of temperate Eurasia (where it is a summer visitor) and the rest of the Old World.The black kite is the commonest of the larger birds of prey. It includes forms from Africa and the Middle East that were formerly regarded as separate species, and these may yet warrant that status.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 45 They flee with the Sacre at twoo sortes of Kytes, that is, to the Kite royall, which is called by the Frenche man, the (Mylan Royall) and at one other kinde of Kyte, called the Blacke Kyte, (the Mylan Noyer) whiche is farre the more nimble byrde of the twoo.
1687 R. Wolley tr. N. Besongne Pres. State France (new ed.) i. xxiv. 205 When the Captain of these Flights of Hawks, takes a black Kite, in the Kings Presence, then he is to have the Kings Horse, his loose Gown, and his Slippers, for his Fees.
1787 C. Taylor Surv. Nat. II. 17 There is a black kite, whose tail is not forked, in size rather less.
1860 Ibis 1 256 The Black Kite, never once seen in winter, returns in immense numbers from the south.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 101/2 On Exmoor, a Black Kite flew over Hawkcombe Head (4th) and a Woodchat Shrike was found.
black lark n. a large lark, Melanocorypha yeltoniensis, the male of which is almost entirely black and which breeds on the steppes of Russia and Central Asia.
1738 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds III. 47 (heading) The black Lark.
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VII. 118 The Black or mutable Lark. Al. Tatarica et mutabilis, et Tanagra sibirica.
2003 Independent 3 June i. 5/1 The cause of their excitement..was a black lark, Melancorypha yeltoniensis—2,000 miles west of its normal haunts on the remote steppes of Kazakhstan.
black martin n. Eng. regional the common swift, Apus apus.
1674 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words 86 The black Martin or Swift; Hirundo apus.
1761 Philos. Trans. 1760 (Royal Soc.) 51 464 There are four distinct species of birds, that go under the general name swallow; viz. the swift or black martin; 2. the swallow..; [etc.].
1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 363/1 The Common Swift..is the..Screech Martin..and Black Martin of the country-people.
1938 Times 14 May 13/5 An old friend writes to me that C. A. Johns, backed by J. A. Owen, gives black martin and martlet as occasional names of the swift.
2000 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 18 Jan. (Suppl.) 25 Swifts were Black Martins or Skirrs.
black plover n. now rare the lapwing, Vanellus vanellus.
1538 T. Elyot Dict., Vpupa, a lapwynk or blacke plouer.
1560 tr. Albertus Magnus' Bk. Secretes f. I.iiiiv, And yf the harte, eye or brayne of a lapwynge or blacke plouer, be hanged vpon a mans necke, it is profitable agaynste forgetfulnes.
1632 R. Sherwood Dict. in R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues (new ed.) , Dixhuict, eighteene; also, a Lapwing, or Black-Plouer; (so tearmed because her ordinarie crie sounds not vnlike this word.)
1824 T. C. Croker Res. S. Ireland ix. 175 Cormick..could kill with his gun every bird that flew in air,—the wild duck, and the partridge, and the grouse, and black plover of the lonesome mountains!
1885 W. Aldridge Gossip Wild Birds Norwood & Crystal Palace Distr. 87 Peewit Plover, Lapwing, or Black Plover. Vanellus cristatus. Is not uncommon about here.
1920 Game Breeder Nov. 35/1 Prices for game in the London markets [in 1913]... Golden Plover, 10d to 1s each. Black Plover, 6d to 8d each.
black redstart n. a chiefly European and Asian songbird, Phoenicurus ochruros (family Muscicapidae), which resembles the common redstart (P. phoenicurus) but has predominantly black plumage in the male.
1831 W. Yarrell in Mag. Nat. Hist. Mar. 118 Black Redstart (Sýlvia Tìthys).—Since the publication of the notice of the first capture of this warbler in England..two other specimens have been taken.
1894 A. Newton Dict. Birds 776 The males of the Black Redstart seem to be more than one year in acquiring their full plumage.
1991 M. Tully No Full Stops in India (1992) i. 32 On the bank of one field we saw a black redstart, his tail quivering energetically.
black stork n. a partly migratory stork, Ciconia nigra, which has predominantly black plumage and a white belly, and breeds locally in the warmer parts of central and eastern Europe.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 137 The flesh of a white Storke, and also of the blacke Storke, called (Saracinessa) is euill of nourishment, and hard to be endewed, and stinking.
1678 J. Ray tr. F. Willughby Ornithol. iii. ii. 286 The black Stork. Ciconia nigra. It is equal to the white Stork, or but little less than it.
1831 List Animals Gardens Zool. Soc. 1 July 35 Black storks are frequent in all the South-eastern parts of Europe, inhabiting marshes in these countries.
1907 E. Rhys Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen (ed. 3) 176 They were about to fell a tree..on whose naked branches a black stork had built its nest.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 113/4 The Whiskered Tern..was found by birders watching out for a Black Stork, which had flown south..earlier the same evening.
black swallow n. (a) Eng. regional the common swift, Apus apus; (b) Caribbean the American black swift, Cypseloides niger.
1765 Catal. Birds, Insects, &c. now exhibiting at Spring-Gardens 12 The Great Black Swallow, or Swift.
1793 W. Smellie tr. Buffon Nat. Hist. Birds VI. 554 The Black Swallow... This bird, which inhabits St. Domingo, is somewhat differently shaped from the Swift.
1889 Folk-lore Jrnl. 7 44 If the ‘black swallows’ (Hirundo Apus. Linn.) are out, there will be no luck [in fishing].
1960 J. Bond Birds W. Indies 132 Black Swift Cypseloides niger. Local names: Swallow; Black Swallow; Rain Bird.
black swift n. (usu. with distinguishing word) any of various swifts with black plumage; esp. (more fully American black swift) Cypseloides niger, of North and Central America.
1817 T. Forster Synoptical Catal. Brit. Birds 55 Apus cypselus... Black swift.
1868 Ibis 4 152 Cypselus barbatus... South-African Black Swift.
1901 Auk 18 394 On reaching the locality, I noticed a pair of Black Swifts flying about over the cliffs.
1962 C. D. Sherman tr. J. Dorst Migrations of Birds iii. 69 The spine-tailed swift..and the American black swift..also perform unusual flights, quite distinct from migrations.
2008 P. Briggs Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park 73 The outsized Alpine swift, which nests colonially on cliffs, often alongside the African black swift.
black warrior n. (a) N. Amer. Harlan's hawk, now regarded as a red-tailed hawk of the subspecies Buteo jamaicensis harlani (now hist.); †(b) a Venezuelan hummingbird, now regarded as a bearded helmetcrest of the subspecies Oxypogon guerinii lindenii; cf. warrior n. 4; (obs.).
1831 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. I. 441 (heading) The Black Warrior. Falco Harlani.
1854 Excelsior 2 328 Linden's helmet-crest, Oxypogon Lindeni... It is called the Black Warrior by the dealers in skins.
1884 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 543 Buteo harlani. Harlan's Buzzard. ‘Black Warrior’.
1891 J. W. Buel Living World 284 Black Warrior (Oxypogon lindenii). This is quite a large species.
1917 F. H. Herrick Audubon the Naturalist I. xxiv. 427 Harlan's Hawk, or the Black Warrior, is now regarded as a southern variety of the Red-tailed Hawk.
1983 Auk 100 161/1 John James Audubon described as Falco harlani..a hawk he had shot in Louisiana and called a Black Warrior.
black woodpecker n. any of various woodpeckers with predominantly black plumage; esp. (a) the large Dryocopus martius of northern Eurasia (also called great black woodpecker); (b) N. Amer. the pileated woodpecker, D. pileatus; freq. with distinguishing word.
1740 E. Albin Suppl. Nat. Hist. Birds 22 The lesser black Woodpecker... This Bird I had from a Gentleman very curious in Birds, &c. he told me it came from New England.
1806 M. Lewis Jrnl. 27 May in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1991) VII. 293 The Black woodpecker..is found in most parts of the rocky Mountains.
1877 T. C. Jerdon Birds of India I. 271 Picus cathpharius... The lesser black woodpecker.
1922 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45 298 There were ants in five of the six stomachs examined of the great black woodpecker; often in abundance.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 13/2 Nutcracker, Wallcreeper, Alpine Swift and Black Woodpecker can be seen, not far from Dracula's Castle itself!
c. In the names of animals other than birds. See also black-beetle n., blackfish n., blackfly n., black panther n. 1, blacksnake n. 1, etc.
black ant n. any of various dark-coloured ants; esp. the small Lasius niger (also black garden ant), found widely in Europe and parts of Asia and North America.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes II. vii. ii. 956 There are great store of blacke Ants, which make holes in the earth, like field Mice.
1843 Penny Mag. 23 Dec. 491/2 The enslaved species are of two species, a black ant..and a mining ant.
a1921 A. T. de Mattos tr. J.-H. Fabre in E. W. Teale Insect World of J. Henri Fabre (1991) xxiii. 173 The distance covered by the nymph-stealing column varies: it all depends on whether Black Ants are plentiful in the neighbourhood.
2006 M. Golley Compl. Garden Wildlife Bk. (2007) 75 The Black Garden Ant is a familiar sight, very common in gardens.
black bear n. either of two forest-dwelling bears that typically have blackish fur: (more fully American black bear) Ursus americanus, of North America (which has a wide range of coat colours), and (more fully Asiatic black bear) Ursus (or Selenarctos) thibetanus, of East and South Asia (which has a pale crescent on the chest).
1589 J. Davis in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations iii. 785 Here we saw a blacke beare.
1648 B. Plantagenet Descr. New Albion 25 Here black Bears and Lions feeding on sweet foods, are killed and eaten.
1781 T. Pennant Hist. Quadrupeds II. ii. § ii. xx. 286 The black bears of America form a very distinct variety.
1800 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. I. ii. 451 The brown Bear is also said to be found in some of the northern parts of America... The American Black Bear is a different species.
1929 Amer. Mus. Novitates No. 360. 1 The Asiatic black bear is given generic rank as distinct from the typical genus Ursus on account of its color..and the formation of the plantar pads.
1992 Internat. Wildlife May–June 25/2 The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted in March to restrict the sale of body parts of American black bears.
2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 15 Jan. i. 7/5 Most of the 68 existing farms raise Asiatic black bears, which are also known as moon bears due to a colored crescent shape on their breasts.
blackbuck n. an antelope, Antilope cervicapra, found chiefly in South Asia, the male of which has blackish or dark brown upperparts, contrasting white underparts, and long spiral horns; cf. Indian antelope n. at Indian adj. and n. Special uses 1b.
1834 J. Forbes Oriental Mem. (ed. 2) I. x. 175 He ran with surprizing velocity, and killed a black buck.
1891 W. T. Blanford Fauna Brit. India: Mammalia ii. 521 Antilope cervicapra. The Indian Antilope or black Buck.
1930 W. M. Mann Wild Animals in & out of Zoo xv. 189 The black buck of India, a medium-sized antelope..makes a most successful exhibit.
2001 New Yorker 5 Mar. 74/2 Texas may have as many Indian blackbuck antelope as India, more Arabian oryx than Saudi Arabia, more scimitar-horned oryx than Africa.
black cattle n. (originally) †bovine animals regardless of colour (cf. cattle n. 4a) (obs.); (in later use) any of several breeds of cattle native to the uplands of Scotland and Wales which are typically (but not exclusively) black; animals of such a breed.
1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God viii. xiii. 320 And Porphery elsewhere saith that the lower the gods are, the sadder sacrifies they require: the earth-gods, and hell-gods loue blacke cattell: the first vpon alltars, the latter in graues and pits.
1725 Minute Bk. Soc. Antiq. 21 July (Brand), After the body [of a Highland chief] is interred, a hundred black cattle and two or three hundred sheep are killed for the entertainment of the company.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang., Black-cattle, oxen; bulls; and cows.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 378/2 In the usual acceptation..is confined to the ox, or what is called black cattle or horned cattle. But as many varieties are not black, and several have no horns, the name neat cattle is more appropriate.
1868 Perthshire Jrnl. 18 June, The large stock of black cattle and crosses.
1919 K. J. J. Mackenzie Cattle xi. 149 Welsh Black Cattle. Some 20 years ago there were two distinct types of black cattle in Wales.
1995 Daily Tel. 28 Aug. 2/8 Hardier breeds—Scottish black-faced sheep and black cattle—are now used by the commoners.
black clock n. (a) a large black beetle, such as a dor beetle (genus Geotrupes); cf. clock n.3; (b) Eng. regional (north.) = black-beetle n. 2.
1620 G. Markham Farewell to Husb. xiii. 90 Dores, or great black Clocks are vehement destroyers of all kind of Corne.
1727 R. Bradley tr. N. Chomel Dictionaire Oeconomique at Dores, Now the Way to secure or prevent these Dores, Dare, or Black Clocks, is, to make great Smokes in the Corn-fields in Seed-time.
1886 in F. Podmore Apparitions & Thought-transference (1894) vii. 169 He found a ‘blackclock’ (i.e. cockroach) floating in his coffee.
1951 S. H. Bell December Bride i. vii. 55 It's wonderful what happens tae black-clocks when they get intae long grass.
1999 C. Tóibín Blackwater Lightship (2000) iii. 56 He was afraid of the black clocks which darted awkwardly across the floor.
black cod n. (a) the saithe or coalfish, Pollachius virens; (b) any of various fishes of the family Nototheniidae, of southern oceans, which are predominantly dark with pale marbling; esp. Notothenia microlepidota, and (N.Z.) Paranotothenia magellanica; cf. Maori chief n. 1; (c) the sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria.
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. Of all our European Fishes, it seems to come nearest to the Cole-Fish or Black-Cod.
1808 J. Pinkerton Gen. Coll. Voy. & Trav. I. 437 The black cod..is very frequent in the sea of Finmark.
1886 R. A. A. Sherrin Handbk. Fishes N.Z. 302 Notothenia..microlepidota... Black Cod.
1941 Copeia 4 270 Anaplopoma fimbria, the ‘black cod’ or skil-fish, is a fish similar in general appearance to the cod, though it is a Percomorph fish, one of the Hexagrammatidae.
1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to Amer. 210 Many Americans wouldn't know..that a coalfish or a coley fillet is black cod.
1988 M. Francis Coastal Fishes N.Z. (rev. ed.) 54/2 Black cod Paranotothenia magellanica... Back usually uniform and dark.
2006 Olive Oct. 100/1 Choose between new-style sashimi anointed with hot soy soil, or black cod in miso (which is really sablefish).
black crappie n. U.S. a North American freshwater sunfish, Pomoxis nigromaculatus (family Centrarchidae), which has silvery-green skin with irregular small black markings.
1900 G. E. Delavan in Rep. Iowa State Fish & Game Warden 50 Still other names [of the calico bass] of local application are..black crappie and lake crappie.
1969 D. F. Costello Prairie World vi. 105, I realized this many years ago while fishing for black crappies on Jumbo Reservoir.
2010 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 25 Mar. 10 Black crappie prefer clearer water and are more commonly found around aquatic vegetation than are white crappie.
black dolphin n. (a) (more fully black dolphin fly) a black aphid, a blackfly; spec. the bean aphid, Aphis fabae; (now rare); (b) any of several marine dolphins (family Delphinidae) with black skin; esp. the long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, and the Chilean dolphin,Cephalorhynchus eutropia.
1743 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Aug. 45 The Shrimp or green Fly took the Pease, as the Black Dolphin, or Collier Fly, did the Beans.
1820 New Family Receipt-bk. (new ed.) 261 When the young shoots of standard cherry trees, or any other trees, are covered with the black dolphin flies, an infusion is made with the leaves and stalks of tobacco.
1851 M. Somerville Physical Geogr. (ed. 3) II. xxix. 266 The Grind or black dolphin has been known to run ashore in hundreds in the bays of Faroe, Orkney, and Shetland.
1904 Encycl. Americana III. at Caaing whale, The whole of the body is of a glossy black color, and hence the fish is frequently known as the blackfish..or black dolphin.
1919 Board Agric. & Fisheries Leaflet No. 104. 2 The Bean Aphis, known variously as Black Fly, Collier, and Black Dolphin.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 476/2 The Black dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia ), one of the smallest cetaceans, ranges from the Strait of Magellan north to Valparaiso, Chile.
blackfin n. any of various dark-finned fishes; esp. (more fully blackfin tuna) a small tuna of the western Atlantic, Thunnus atlanticus, having the second dorsal fin and the dorsal finlets all dark.
1802 C. S. Sonnini Buffon's Hist. Nat. des Poissons (new ed.) X. 131 Sparus niger... Par les anglais, the black fin.
1848 N. Brit. Rev. 8 47 The black-fin or salmon smolt, the orange-fin or whitling, and the grey-fin or bull-trout smolt.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 491 The ‘Blue-Fin’, or ‘Black-fin’, Coregonus nigripennis, has thus far only been taken in the deeper waters of Lake Michigan.
1945 R. T. Whiteleather & H. H. Brown Exper. Fishery Surv. in Trinidad, Tobago & Brit. Guiana 95 It was an excellent lure for blackfin tuna (bonito).
2002 Sport Fishing Sept.–Oct. 30/1 Huston amassed 137.5 points..with two kingfish, three blackfin and one dolphin.
black fox n. a black variety of the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, occurring in North America and northern Eurasia, and often killed or reared for its valuable fur; cf. silver fox n. (a) at silver n. and adj. Compounds 2b.
1586 Acct. 18 May in Mariner's Mirror (1973) 59 103 They had of black fox, the rarest furres that are knowen xvten skinnes estimated to be wourth Cli a skinne.
1602 J. Brereton Briefe Relation Discov. Virginia 13 Beares. Luzernes. Blacke Foxes.
1757 Public Advertiser 18 Apr. 3/3 Muscovy Ducks, a Pair of large Eagles, two black Foxes from Hudson's Bay.
1826 J. D. Godman Amer. Nat. Hist. I. 276 The black fox is found throughout the northern parts of America..where it is considered among the richest and most valuable of furs.
1998 Arctic Anthropol. 35 128/2 Gromoff..listed eight varieties, including arctic fox..: black fox, red fox, silver fox, and cross fox; gray, white, and blue arctic foxes.
black goby n. a large goby, Gobius niger, of the north-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean, that is typically grey or brown in colour.
1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. 174 The Black Goby. Gobio niger.
1876 S. Smiles Life Sc. Naturalist (ed. 4) xiv. 290 She sent home a specimen of the Black Goby or Rock-fish.
1936 J. T. Jenkins Fishes Brit. Isles (ed. 2) 91 The Black Goby is a frequenter of rocky or sandy ground.
1996 ICES Jrnl. Marine Sci. 53 757 Black goby mostly ate gammarids, crabs, and fish.
black helmet n. a Caribbean helmet shell of the genus Cassis, esp. the king helmet ( C. tuberosa) and the queen helmet ( C. madagascariensis), both used in making shell cameos.
1846 Daily News 19 Feb. 8/2 The defendant had agreed to sell the plaintiff 22 pair of ‘Honduras black helmet shells’.
1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 740 The black helmet (Cassis tuberosa) of the West Indian seas.
1993 N. Penny Materials of Sculpt. (2005) i. 18 (caption) Shell cameo of a chariot... The shell is probably the Black Helmet (Cassis tuberosa).
black lion tamarin n. a lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, having chiefly black fur and a golden rump, found in only one small area of Brazil; also called golden-rumped lion tamarin.Formerly regarded as a subspecies of the (golden) lion tamarin, L. rosalia. Cf. black-faced lion tamarin n. at black-faced adj. Special uses.
1984 Folia Primatologica 42 150/1 The black lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, and the Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin..have rarely been bred.
2001 Independent 4 Apr. i. 9/6 Three other species of lion tamarin are also critically endangered. They are the black lion tamarin, the golden-headed lion tamarin, and the black-faced lion tamarin.
black mamba n. a large, highly venomous, mainly ground-dwelling mamba, Dendroaspis polylepis (family Elapidae), which is grey, brown, or olive-green in colour with a black interior to the mouth.
1859 D. Leslie in Glasgow Herald 14 Feb. 6/2 He had tramped on a black Mampa, at least ten feet long.
1876 Lady Barker in Evening Hours 1876 289/1 An Englishman having been bitten by a black mamba (a very venomous adder) some short time since.
1958 Listener 23 Jan. 154/1 Black mambas..have the unattractive habit of lurking in trees and dropping down on to the unwary.
2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 116/1 When agitated, black mambas raise their heads over a metre off the ground..and open their mouths wide.
black mullet n. (a) a dark mullet of the genus Mugil; esp. (U.S.) the flathead mullet, M. cephalus; (b) U.S. the northern kingfish, Menticirrhus nebulosus (family Sciaenidae).
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl., Mugil Niger, the black Mullet, a name given by authors to a fish of the Mullet kind, but all over black, more usually known by the name of the portius piscis.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 123 The King-Fish,..also known as..the ‘Black Mullet’ in the Chesapeake.
1915 National Geographic Mag. Aug. 168/2 These resembled the black mullet and were fairly edible, proving, however, of greater service in baiting the traps and the flashlight machines.
2009 Miami Herald (Nexis) 8 Nov. d9 By mid-October, the coastline is literally black with huge schools of black mullet, with large tarpon in tow.
black perch n. any of various dark perch-like fishes; esp. (a) a surfperch, Embiotoca jacksoni, of the east Pacific; (b) U.S. any of the freshwater sunfishes of the genus Micropterus (family Centrarchidae); (c) Austral. and N.Z. the luderick, Girella tricuspidata (family Kyphosidae).
1685 W. Penn Further Acct. Pennsylvania 9 There is the Catfish, or Flathead, Lampry, Eale, Trout, Perch black and white, Smelt, Sunfish, &c.
1792 New Syst. Nat. Hist. III. 226 Only five kinds of the perch are found in the lakes and on the coasts of Britain; the river perch, the sea perch, the basse, the ruffe, and the black perch.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 423/1 Centropristes nigricans, one of the species known by the name of the black-perch or black-bass, is abundant in the rivers of the United States.
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng., Black-Perch, a river fish of New South Wales, Therapon niger, family Percidæ.
1946 F. LaMonte N. Amer. Game Fishes 134 Micropterus dolomieu... Black Perch.
1966 R. B. Doogue & J. M. Moreland N.Z. Sea Anglers' Guide 242 Blackfish, black perch; black bream (Tasmania)... Frequents mangrove swamps and muddy river mouths.
2009 Environmental Res. 109 112 (caption) Other fish included sugartoad, butterfish, jacks, mahi mahi, hake fish, anchovies, black perch, [etc.].
black rat n. a cosmopolitan rat, Rattus rattus, with typically dark or black fur, large ears, and a long tail, which is now found chiefly in tropical and subtropical areas; also called ship rat, house rat, roof rat.The black rat is the chief host of the plague-transmitting flea. In South Asia it remains the dominant rat in domestic situations; in most cooler countries it has generally been replaced by the brown rat, R. norvegicus.
1772 R. Smith Universal Directory Rats (new ed.) 133 The black rat..is the old genuine English House-Rat.
1862 D. T. Ansted & R. G. Latham Channel Islands ii. ix. 201 The black rat, so rare in England, is common in Alderney and Herm.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman II. 1375 Many of the ‘black rats’ (Rattus rattus) in Britain are actually brown, and many of the ‘brown rats’..are black.
1988 Q. N. Myrvik & R. S. Weiser Fund. Med. Bacteriol. & Mycol. (ed. 2) xxiv. 347 Transmission from rat to rat and from rat to man is due to two species of rat fleas which parasitize Rattus rattus (black rat) and Rattus alexandrinus (Egyptian rat).
2007 R. Lovegrove Silent Fields vii. 217 The Black Rat..probably first arrived here with the Romans.
black rat snake n. a large, non-venomous colubrid snake, Elaphe obsoleta, of eastern North America, with chiefly blackish coloration (also called pilot black-snake); spec. one of the subspecies E. o. obsoleta.
1888 E. L. L. Arnold Eng. as she Seems 16 Here was waiting, like a black rat snake under a log, a line of these carriages.
1953 H. S. Zim & H. M. Smith Reptiles & Amphibians iii. 91 The Black Rat Snake, also known as the Pilot Black Snake, may be mistaken for the Black Racer.
2001 Canad. Geographic May–June 72/1 The islands are like stepping stones for all manner of species, like the black rat snake, Canada's largest reptile.
black rhino n. = black rhinoceros n.
1900 C. V. A. Peel Somaliland viii. 298 The head of the black ‘rhino’ is small in proportion to its body; the head of the white ‘rhino’ is large in proportion to its body.
1952 Aeronautics 26 37/1 The delightful experience of seeing our travelling companion and a tall Zulu emerge from the bush, pursued by a black rhino and all three running like hell.
2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 47/2 Black rhino still hide in the deepest thickets.
black rhinoceros n. a two-horned rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, of the eastern and central areas of Africa, having a pointed, prehensile upper lip.Not really distinguishable by means of colour from the much larger white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum.
1838 Penny Mag. 17 Mar. 101/1 In the South African Museum, the three species are—rhinoceros Africanus, or the black rhinoceros of the Cape colonists; rhinoceros simus, or the white rhinoceros; and rhinoceros ketloa.
1886 S. W. Baker Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia xiv. 246 There is only one species of this animal in Abyssinia; this is the two-horned black rhinoceros.
1965 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans On Track of Unknown Animals (1970) ii. 34 The white rhinoceros is the same greyish hue as the black rhinoceros.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 407/1 The black rhinoceros lingers tenuously in widely scattered pockets of East, Central, and South Africa.
black scale n. a destructive soft scale insect, Saissetia oleae, that infests olive, citrus, and other cultivated plants in warm countries.
1880 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 3 July 4/2 He referred..to the black scale, nine species of which were known, and which had destroyed $10,000,000 worth of orchards in Illinois.
1930 Discovery Apr. 135/2 The little ladybird has been enlisted to fight the black-scale pest in California.
2005 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 18 Dec. (Homefront section) 6/2 The stress of the long, dry season has resulted in many grass trees..becoming infested with black scale.
black slug n. any of various dark-bodied terrestrial slugs; esp. the large Arion ater (family Arionidae), a common slug of northern Europe and northwestern North America that is typically black-bodied.
1756 T. Hale et al. Compl. Body Husbandry xiv. iv. 705/2 The small brown Slug is the most destructive of Wheat and other Grain; the great black Slug of Pulse.
1878 Zoologist 2 85 The Black Slug.—Found in the neighbourhood of Horsham, Cowfold, and West Grinstead, where black, white and red specimens have been met with, though rarely.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman I. xv. 395 In the common black slug (Arion ater) there is not even a vestige [of a shell].
1999 Independent on Sunday 18 Apr. (Review Suppl.) 51/1 There are four main garden slugs: the grey field slug..; the garden slug..; the keeled slug..; and the black slug (Arion ater), which is usually black but can be red-brown if you're lucky.
black squirrel n. a melanistic form of the (eastern) grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, of which there are several populations in North America.
1682 T. Amy Carolina 22 There are..the Red, the Grey, the Fox and Black Squirrels.
1742 J. Bartram Lett. (1992) 194, I have seen scores of black squirrels beyond ye mountains.
1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 401/2 The black squirrels have been considered by some to be a variety of the Sciurus cinereus, or of the Sciurus vulpinus, and by others have been referred to Sciurus capistratus.
2007 Garden City (Kansas) Telegr. 7 May 3/2 The town's governing body in August 1972 passed legislation to protect the black squirrel and proclaim the animal as the town's official mascot.
black swallowtail n. a common North American swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes asterius, which has chiefly black wings with narrow bands of yellow spots; also called parsnip swallowtail.The larva is the parsleyworm.
1840 P. H. Gosse Canad. Naturalist xii. 184 Another species, the Black Swallowtail (Papilio Asterius), is likewise found in Newfoundland and in the Southern States.
1930 A. H. Clark New Evol. xiv. 141 In that restricted group of swallowtails which includes our common black or parsnip swallowtail..all of the species except three feed on umbelliferous plants.
2003 Daily Herald (Chicago) 24 Aug. v. 1/2 She started..raising black swallowtail butterflies when she began noticing them laying eggs on her dill plants.
black whale n. now hist. any of several kinds of whale; esp. the southern right whale, Balaena australis; cf. blackfish n. 3.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 1101 Neere vnto this Island, about the exterior part, there are many blacke Whales seene, which commonly make warre together.
1744 A. Dobbs Acct. Countries adjoining Hudson's Bay 74 They had seen many black Whales, and other Fish.
1788 T. Jefferson in Papers (1958) XIV. 233 Brazil whale, or Black whale. Smallest of all. Found in same latitude with Spermaceti.
1831 in R. McNab Old Whaling Days (1913) i. 3 The black whales visit the bays and coasts of New Zealand for the purpose of calving.
1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack vi. 28 The sparmacitty don't take the harpoon quite so quietly as the black whale does.
1884 G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals 11 Globicephalus svineval,..also called Black Whale, Social Whale.
1954 W. B. Rhodes Whaling Jrnl. Introd. p. xvi, The pursuit in coastal waters of black whales was known as `bay whaling'.
1982 H. Morton Whale's Wake 23 The Southern right whale—usually called the black whale by the British—migrated to calve in New Zealand..bays.
black widow n. [after German Schwarze Witwe (1827 in the source translated in quot. 1831), itself after Kalmyk belvsn har < belvsn widow +har black; compare karakurt n.] (more fully black widow spider) any of various dangerously venomous spiders of the worldwide genusLatrodectus (family Theridiidae), the females of which are glossy black with red markings on the abdomen; esp. any of three species occurring in North America, formerly regarded as subspecies of L. mactans.In quot. 1830 perh.: L. tredecimguttatus of Eurasia.
1830 Cousin Elizabeth 193, I read an account of them in a book that papa looked out for me; they are called the black widow spiders, and though they do all this mischief the poor Cossacks think it a great crime to kill them.
1831 tr. H. A. Zwick Calmuc Tartary 37 Millepedes,..tarantula,..and the still more poisonous scorpion-spider, which the Calmucs call the black widow, (belbussun chàrra) are every where to be met with, and are much dreaded.
1915 Jrnl. Parasitology 1 107 The not-infrequent occurrence of the notorious ‘black widow’ spider, Latrodectes mactans, in the vicinity of Stanford University.
1954 F. C. Lane All about Insect World 55 Once crushed between them, even the deadly black widow spider is doomed.
2001 N. Jones Rough Guide Trav. Health ii. 361 The brown recluse is responsible for more bites than the black widow in the USA.
d. In the names of plants and fungi.See also black ash n.1, black bean n., black birch n., black-gum n., etc.
black alder n. (a) = alder buckthorn n. (now rare); (b) N. Amer. the winterberry, Ilex verticillata.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. lxxviij. 758 The blacke Aller groweth not lyke a tree, neyther waxeth it very great, but it bringeth foorth many long straight roddes, whiche doo diuide them selues agayne in other small twigges.
1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum xxxvii. 240 The black Aller or Alder tree, riseth seldome to be of any great bignesse, but for the most part abideth like a hedge, bush or tree, spreading into branches.
1758 T. Hale et al. Compl. Body Husbandry (ed. 2) I. iv. xlix. 379 The black alder, whose berries are mixed among those of buckthorn at the markets, is a little shrub no way allied to the right alder, except in the shape of the leaf.
1803 A. F. M. Willich Domest. Encycl. (Amer. ed.) IV. 332/1 at Prinos, This tree is commonly called black alder, or Virginia winter-berry. It grows in moist places, generally sending up several slender stalks.
1882 Jrnl. Forestry July 178 The alder buckthorn, or black alder, as Rhamnus Frangula is more often called..gives off its branches alternately on either side of the stem.
1902 E. J. Parry & J. H. Coste Chem. Pigments 231 A similar but poorer green is prepared from the black alder (R. frangula) and the evergreen privet.
1973 Vermont Life Fall 44/1 Among shrubs and flowering plants within the swamp are mountain holly, withe rod, black alder..and starflower.
2008 B. Damrosch Garden Primer 634/2 One is winterberry (I. verticillata), also called black alder, which..bears bright red berries that remain on the twigs for a good part of the winter.
black bearberry n. a low-growing shrub, Arctostaphylos alpina, a native of high ground in northern Europe and North America with dark purple berries and white flowers.
1824 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 253 A[rbutus] alpina. Black Bear-berry.
1899 J. A. Lees Peaks & Pines xvii. 292 The black bearberry by itself furnishes shades of every colour, from dark myrtle green..to blood-red crimsons.
1994 E. C. Pielou Naturalist's Guide to Arctic v. 153 The leaves are thicker and more wrinkled in black bearberry and stay on the plant for several years.
black bent n. (a) a foxtail grass, Alopecurus myosuroides (formerly A. agrestis), common as a weed of cereal crops; (b) the red-top Agrostis gigantea, a perennial grass native to Europe and widely naturalized in North America.
1771 A. Young Farmer's Tour E. Eng. II. 414 From the middle of April till June, the black bent was fed with sheep, by lodging them in it from a common.
1821 S. F. Gray Nat. Arrangem. Brit. Plants II. 145 Vilfa nigra. Black bent.
1931 A. D. Hall Soil (ed. 4) x. 361 On cultivated land, the ‘black-bent’ grass (Alopecurus agrestis) and field mint (Mentha arvensis) are difficult to deal with.
1991 R. H. M. Langer & G. D. Hill Agric. Plants (ed. 2) iv. 85 Black bent or redtop (A. gigantea) is an arable weed in the main.
1995 Farmers Weekly 21 July 69/1 Cereal growers on Wold land suspect they have herbicide-resistant blackgrass in early spring should take a closer look—chances are it's black bent.
black cabbage n. [apparently after Italian cavolo nero cavolo nero n.] any of various dark-leaved varieties of cabbage or kale; spec. = cavolo nero n.
1855 H. D. Wolff Island Empire i. 28 They then prepare a supper of fish and herbs, amongst which it is indispensable that there should be some black cabbage and anchovies.
1883 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Nov. 487/2 What a charm there is in old monastic gardens,—..in the datura growing with the black cabbage, in the clematis beside the bean-stalks!
1906 E. Nesbit Railway Children i. 20 It looks more like a dripping-pan full of black cabbages.
1981 N.Y. Times 30 Sept. c6/2 He cooks with black cabbage, one of his risottos is made with clams.
2004 P. Mitchell Beautiful Bowl of Soup 94 She recommends using more than one type of cabbage, including the traditional black cabbage, if available.
black cherry n. (a) a dark-coloured sweet or sour cherry; esp. the fruit of any of several wild or cultivated varieties of the European Prunus avium or the North American P. serotina; (also) any of the trees which bear this fruit; (b) deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna, which has black cherry-like fruit (now rare).
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 198/2 Blacke chery, merise.
a1674 Milton Brief Hist. Moscovia (1682) i. 21 Black-cherry, or divers other Berries.
1779 St. James's Chron. 5–7 Aug. 4/1 A Lovely Girl,..in perfect Health, was seised after eating a Quantity of black Cherries (the small Kind) with a violent Pain at her Stomach.
1847 R. E. Griffith Med. Bot. 486 A. belladonna... Common Names.—Deadly Nightshade, Dwale, Black Cherry, Nightshade.
1898 G. Pinchot Adirondack Spruce 30 Black Cherry stands about midway in the scale of tolerance among the trees in the Park.
1918 National Druggist Nov. 449/1 Belladonna, known as Black Cherry, Doft Berry, Deadly Nighshade, grows wild in Europe and Western Asia.
1999 Bon Appétit May 88/1 To make kirsch, he and his godson..handpick sweet black cherries in the beginning of July, when the fruit is ripe.
2005 C. Fergus Trees of New Eng. 86 Black cherry is the largest tree among the North American cherry species.
black cinnamon n. †(a) = Winter's bark n. (obs.); (b) the aromatic Caribbean tree Pimenta racemosa (formerly P. acris) (family Myrtaceae) from which bay rum is made (now rare).
1584 A. Barlowe in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) iii. 729 The tree that beareth the rinde of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter brought from the Streights of Magellane, and many other of excellent smell, and qualitie.
1785 J. Adair Let. in A. Duncan Med. Comm. 9 208 Canella Alba. This is called here black cinnamon, and is not the true winter's bark, but, as a pure aromatic stimulant, is, I think, preferable.
1834 R. M. Martin Hist. Brit. Colonies II. i. 64 The Black cinnamon is generally found about fifty feet in height and two feet in diameter, and delighting in arid and barren soils.
1901 Jrnl. N.Y. Bot. Garden 2 141 A good specimen also represents Pimenta acris, the wild clove, or black cinnamon, a native of the West Indes [sic].
black cumin n. fennel flower, Nigella sativa, a plant producing small black seeds used as a spice; (also) (more fully black cumin seed) the seeds themselves; also called Roman coriander.
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck, Roomsche Coriander, romaine Coriander, or black Cummine-seed.
1678 J. Phillips tr. J.-B. Tavernier Indian Trav. ii. x. 131 in tr. J.-B. Tavernier Six Voy., Cumin White, eight Mamoudi's. Cumin Black, three Mamoudi's.
1714 Philos. Trans. 1713 (Royal soc.) 28 229 They smell to black Cummin-seed bruised and tyed up in a Nodule.
1878 R. W. Stevens Stowage of Ships (ed. 7) 563 Black cummin, the pungent seeds of the Nigella Sativa are used instead of pepper.
1906 Garden 6 Jan. 9/3 N. sativa (Black Cumin) is a tall-growing plant, with bluish flowers that have no involucre.
2002 P. Theroux Dark Star Safari (2003) v. 74 His boss had liked fruit juice, and preferred boiled black cumin to tea.
black dogwood n. any of several plants which resemble dogwood in some way; esp. (a) alder buckthorn, Rhamnus frangula, a native of Europe and introduced in North America; (b) Jamaican the Caribbean tree Piscidia carthaginensis (cf. dogwood n. 2) (rare).
[1801 Philos. Mag. 9 358 The wood made use of is either alder, willow, or (black) dog-wood.]
1803 C. Hutton tr. J. Ozanam & J. E. Montucla Recreations in Math. & Nat. Philos. III. x. i. 440 The charcoal found by experience to be fittest for the composition of gunpowder, is that made from the alder, willow, or black dog-wood.
1863 Technologist 3 57 Piscidia Carthaginensis, L. (Bitch Wood, or Black Dogwood of Jamaica)... This is largely used in Jamaica for wheels and carriages.
1882 Forestry 5 793 The underwood in this county is of considerable extent, and consists of hazel, ash, oak.., bird-cherry, or black dogwood (Prunus padus), copse elder, [etc.].
1907 E. Step Wayside & Woodland Trees 92 The wood made into charcoal is said to be the best for the purposes of the gunpowder makers, who know it by the name of Black Dogwood.
2003 Jrnl. Range Managem. 56 464/1 Ivy,..honeysuckle..and black dogwood (Frangula alnus); all of them are considered of high preference in herbivore diets.
2004 D. F. Austin Florida Ethnobotany 515/1 People call Piscidia the black mahoe (Trinidad, Tobago),..black dogwood (Jamaica), [etc.].
black fungus n. the cloud ear fungus, Auricularia polytricha; also called wood ear.
1904 China: Catal. Coll. Chinese Exhib. at Louisiana Purchase Exhib. 98 Vegetable products... Black fungus.
1979 J. Yueh Great Tastes Chinese Cooking 37 Dried Food Chinese mushrooms Tree ears (cloud ear or black fungus).
2006 City News (Brisbane) 7 Sept. 33/3 The mushrooms, including the king oyster, chestnut, black fungi, swiss brown..were rich in vitamin B.
black gooseberry n. any of several plants of the genus Ribes (cf. ribes n. 3) which bear dark-coloured fruit; the fruit itself; esp. †(a) the blackcurrant, R. nigrum (obs.); (b) a black variety of the gooseberry, R. grossularia; (c) N. Amer. the swamp gooseberry, R. lacustre.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. xx. 682 The blacke Gooseberies are lyke to the aforesayde..sauing they be of a blacke colour... The second kinde is called Ribes nigrum, in English Blacke Gooseberies.
1732 R. Bradley Fruit Garden Display'd: June 16 The Round Black Goosberry. This Kind makes a Bush about three Foot high, and was raised from Seed at Mr. Whitmill's.
1829 W. Cobbett Eng. Gardener vi. §271, I regret the almost complete disappearance of the little smooth black gooseberry, and of the little hairy red gooseberry.
1890 Western Garden Dec. 50/2 We have an abundance of black and yellow currents and black gooseberries of good size and quality.
1947 A. G. Harvey Douglas of Fir 259 Ribes..divaricatum var. irriguum Rock or black gooseberry.
2002 C. Varner Plant Whistler Region 103 Black gooseberry is an armed shrub to 2m in height... The small, dark purple berries are bristly and hang in clusters.
black gram n. a drought-resistant legume which produces black seeds, Vigna mungo (formerly Phaseolus mungo) (family Fabaceae ( Leguminosae)), which is closely related to the mung and is widely grown in India and elsewhere in tropical Asia as a pulse.
1766 R. Stevens Compl. Guide East-India Trade 68 Surat Goods... Cotton Yarn, white. Black Gram. Indigo.
1863 Chambers's Encycl. V. 789/2 In some parts of India, one of the most esteemed kinds of pulse is the Moog, Moong, or Mungo..; in others, the Kala Moog, or Black Gram.
1908 Agric. Jrnl. India 3 236 For green and black gram (Phaseolus mungo), the best cultivators plough up the stubble, apply ashes, and secure a fine tilth before sowing the pulse crop.
2004 A. Green Beans 41/1 Black gram beans are especially popular in northern India, where they are cooked with ginger, onions, and butter to make a rich creamy purée.
black hellebore n. either of two hellebores formerly used medicinally, Helleborus officinalis and (now usually) the Christmas rose, H. niger; cf.melampodium n. 1.
[▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 1336 His [sc. Argol's] herbe, which is him betake, Is hote Eleborum the blake.]
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. lv. 947 Þe blak elebor is moche more perilous.
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 632 (MED), Of þe white elebre and of þe blacke.
?1550 H. Llwyd tr. Pope John XXI Treasury of Healthe sig. X.iiiiv, Cut the beast & put into the wound pouder of blacke Hellebore which wyth his propertie draweth out poysoned humors.
1601 R. Chester Dialogue in Loves Martyr 85 There is blacke Hellebore cald Melampodium.
1730 J. Bradstreet Farmers Request 20, I cut a Hole, and put in two or three Roots of black Hellebore, in the outside of the Thigh, about 7 or 8 Inches below the Round-bone.
1875 H. C. Wood Treat. Therapeutics (1879) 536 Black Hellebore has been used by some as a purgative emmenagogue, but is now very rarely if ever employed.
1959 P. O'Brian Unknown Shore iii. 83 They browsed among the tinctures, linctuses and throches, mixing themselves small personal prescriptions—mandragora, opium, black hellebore.
2005 D. Burke Compl. Burke's Backyard 156/2 H. niger. The black hellebore. This name refers to the plant's black roots. It's flowers are white.
black horehound n. a strongly scented European plant, Ballota nigra (cf. Ballota n.), with rough-textured hairy leaves and whorls of small red-purple flowers around the stem, formerly (and sometimes still) used medicinally.
1538 T. Elyot Dict. Table Correct. sig. A.vv/1, Apiastrum, rede an herbe, whiche hath leaues lyke to blacke horehound, but greatter.
?1610 J. Fletcher Faithfull Shepheardesse ii. sig. D1, The Clote..And this blacke Horehound, both are very good.
1722 J. Miller Botanicum Officinale 286 The Black Horehound grows taller, and more branched than the White, having square hairy Stalks, and larger darker Leaves.
1902 Longman's Mag. Nov. 59 Scattered along the lonely waste are plants of the black mullein, and the stinking black horehound.
2008 P. Taylor Irish Country Village (2009) 67 They walked along a path of uneven concrete slabs where grass and clumps of black horehound had forced their way through the cracks.
black ipecacuanha n. now rare any of several plants used as a substitute for ipecacuanha; esp. the tropical American plant Psychotria emetica(family Rubiaceae), which has black roots; (also) a preparation made from any of these plants, used as an emetic.
[1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 152 Of the true Ipecacuanha I have four Kinds, Black, Brown, Grey, and White.]
1812 J. Stokes Bot. Materia Medica I. 368 Black ipecacuanha.
1850 M. Kirby Flora Leics. 16 P[olygala] glandulosa in China, is called black ipecacuanha, from its emetic powers.
1928 Gardeners' Chron. 5 May 314/2 P. emetica is grown for its roots, which produce Black ipecacuanha, one of the many substitutes for the true Ipecacuanha drug.
black ironwood n. any of several tropical and subtropical trees having dark-coloured, extremely dense and durable wood; spec. Krugiodendron ferreum (family Rhamnaceae) of tropical America, and any of several olives of southern Africa, including Olea laurifolia and O. capensis; (also) the wood of any of these trees.
1780 R. Weston Suppl. Eng. Flora 40 Sideroxylon..Black Ironwood.
1796 C. R. Hopson tr. C. P. Thunberg Trav. (ed. 3) II. 109 Black iron wood [Ger. das schwarze Eisenholz]..is hard and strong; it is used for axle-trees and the poles of waggons.
1868 R. J. Mann Colony Natal xx. 161 It is well worth considering whether it might not also be advisable to plant some of the more valuable kinds of native trees, such as the..black iron-wood, and red milk-wood.
1939 Florida (Federal Writers' Project) iii. 328 On the keys grow 27 varieties of hardwood, some so heavy they will not float in water—notably, the madeira, tamarind,..and black ironwood.
2011 S. D. Jewell Exploring Wild South Florida (ed. 4) 196/1 You'll see..black ironwood, Jamaica dogwood, and paradise-tree.
black kale n. [after Italian cavolo nero cavolo nero n.] = cavolo nero n.; cf. black cabbage n.
1990 N.Y. Times 30 May c1/3 Instead of grass, big florid clumps of Chinese giant red mustard grow next to the driveway, along with Italian black kale and mitsuba, a pungent Oriental green.
2003 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 22 June 27 Bring a large pot of water to boil, drop in black kale and cook for five to six minutes.
black knapweed n. common knapweed, Centaurea nigra, which has dark purple flowers.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. ccxxxviii. 588 Matfellon or blacke Knapweede, is doubtlesse a kinde of Scabious.
1766 Museum Rusticum VI. 451 Common, or Black Knapweed... The root is hard, thick, and woody.
1853 A. Pratt Wild Flowers II. 160 The Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is an equally common flower, and is easily known by its smaller blossoms, which are also of a much less vivid purple colour.
1905 Country-side 29 July 180/3 The black Knapweed, which raises its dark, ripening flowerheads above the short-stalked barley falls before the cutters with the crop which it infests.
2007 S. Falconer Pentland Hills 48 The wildflower meadow has developed over the years, with a profusion of black knapweed, red campion.., and ox-eye daisies catching the breeze.
black larch n. N. Amer. the tamarack, Larix laricina, a North American larch; also called red larch.
1752 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 6) at Larix, There are two Varieties of the Larch-tree: one of them is brought from North America, and is called the Black Larch; the other came from Archangel.
1885 C. Y. Michie Larch (new ed.) i. 2 The Larix pendula, or black larch, is not so generally known in this country as it ought to be.
1917 Nature-Study Rev. 13 342 Our commonest form is the American larch or tamarack, also called hackatack, black larch and red larch.
2007 Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) (Nexis) 1 July g2 [The tamarack is] sometimes referred to as the Eastern larch, black larch, American larch, red larch or as biologists so fondly call it, Larix laricina.
black locust n. the North American false acacia, Robinia pseudoacacia, having thorny branches and dense clusters of white heavily-scented flowers and widely grown as an ornamental and formerly as a timber tree; (also) the heavy, durable wood of this tree, used esp. for fencing and shipbuilding; also called locust tree; cf. robinia n.
1792 H. Toulmin Descr. Kentucky 75 The soil is deep and black, and the natural growth, large walnuts, honey and black locust, poplar, elm, hickory, sugar tree, &c.
1822 J. Flint Lett. from Amer. 229 The black locust is strong, heavy, not much subject to warping.
1861 All Year Round 2 Feb. 401/2 This is the black locust; mark the fruit hanging down in great black pods, like enormous scarlet-runners gone to seed.
1908 Proc. Amer. Railway Engin. Assoc. 9 731 Black locust is a hard wood, durable in contact with the soil.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees ix. 186 Best known is R. pseudacacia, otherwise known as the false acacia or black locust, which was introduced to Europe in the 1700s and selected for the navy.
black lovage n. the plant alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum, which has black seeds.
1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. G.iiij, Smyrnium..maye be called in englishe blacke Louage.
1918 Gardeners' Chron. 19 Oct. 155/2 The various competitors for sharing the name..Sea Lovage, or Scotch Parsley, Ligusticum scoticum; Black Lovage, or Alexanders, Smyrnium Olusatrum; [etc.].
1936 E. S. Rohde Herbs & Herb Gardening viii. 98 The seeds when ripe are almost black and hence the popular name, Black Lovage.
1982 K. N. Sanecki Discovering Herbs (ed. 3) 17 Smyrnium olusatrum (Umbelliferae) Alisanders, black lovage, black pot herb... The mop heads of flowers resemble those of angelica so strongly that sometimes the two plants are confused.
black mangrove n. a kind of mangrove, Avicennia germinans (or A. nitida), of tropical America and Africa which has rough dark-coloured bark and pneumatophores rather than prop roots (also called olive mangrove); (formerly also) the red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle (rare).
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World iii. 54 The black Mangrove is the largest Tree.
1762 Amer. Gazetteer I. at Roca Islands, The east end of the island is overgrown with black mangrove trees.
1871 C. Kingsley At Last II. xiii. 211 The common Rhizophoras, or black mangroves.
1880 Bot. Gaz. 5 58, I have never seen the black Mangrove (Avicennia tomentosa) grow to a greater size and height than along Jupiter Narrows.
1907 J. E. Rogers Tree Bk. liii. 402 The Black Mangrove (Avicennia nitida, Jacq.) is an ever-blooming tree, with inconspicuous white flowers.
2010 D. Wells Lives Trees 206 Black mangroves grow in shallower waters farther inland than red mangroves. The bark of a mature black mangrove is black.
black maple n. a kind of maple, Acer nigrum, of the central and eastern United States and south-east Canada, which is closely related to the sugar maple and similarly used for timber and syrup production; (formerly also) †the sugar maple, A. saccharum (obs.); cf. black sugar maple n.
1751 Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar 12 145 Sugar-maple, Sugartree, Sugarwood, Black maple, Hard maple.
1836 Family Mag. Apr. 178/2 The black-maple flourishes in more southern and warmer climates, and is found on the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi.
1919 N. C. Brown Forest Products 379 In Vermont the black maple is commonly considered superior to the sugar maple as a producer of high quality as well as large quantity of sap.
2007 Jrnl. Hydrol. 341 117/2 Vegetation on ridgetops and hillslopes was dominated by deciduous trees including sugar maple (Acer saccharum), black maple (Acer nigrum), American beech (Fagus grandiflora).
black masterwort n. see masterwort n.
black mechoacan n. now hist. and rare a kind of jalap obtained from the tuberous root of a Mexican climbing plant, Ipomoea purga; (also) the plant itself.
1633 T. Johnson Gerard's Herball (new ed.) ii. cccxxii. 873 It is called by those of Alexandria and Marscilles Ialapium or Gelapum: and of those of Marseilles it is thought the blacke or male Mechoacan.
1687 tr. P. Barbette Thes. Chirurgiæ (ed. 4) 8 Medicines that purge Phlegm. The Roots of Asarum, Mechoacan white and black, Hellebore, Colocinth, Myrabolani, [etc.].
1708 Hist. Wks. Learned Apr. 215 Mr. Linder puts also in this rank Gumma-gutta, Euphorbium, Scammony.., the Plant named the Passion-flower, or black Mechoacan, commonly called Jalap.
1874 F. A. Flückiger & D. Hanbury Pharmacographia i. 398 Thus jalap which at that period used to be imported cut into transverse slices, was termed from its darker colour, Black Mechoacan.
1911 J. U. Lloyd Hist. Veg. Drugs 52 Owing to this confusion between the two bulbs, one was called black mechoacan, while the other was known as white jalap.
black medick n. a small yellow-flowered medick of grassland, Medicago lupulina, with compressed black pods, sometimes grown for fodder; also called nonsuch.
[1756 J. Hill Brit. Herbal 312/2 (heading) Black-fruited Medick.]
1778 W. Hudson Flora Anglica (rev. ed.) I. 331 Anglis, black Medick, or Nonesuch.
1864 M. Plues Rambles in Search of Wild Flowers (ed. 2) 83 The Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)..grows abundantly among low herbage, and about the entrance of corn fields.
1948 G. D. H. Bell Cultivated Plants of Farm xii. 97 Quick-growing annuals occupy the place of a catch crop and can be used for folding or cutting green as with black medick and crimson clover.
2006 Org. Gardening Apr.–May 18/1 Black medic..and clover thrive in nitrogen-poor soils.
black moss n. now rare Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, an epiphyte found from the southern United States to South America.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 206 The black Moss that hangs on the Trees in Carolina..is sometimes above six Foot long.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. v. 34 We have two or three flowering air-plants in the Southern States,..one of them is..the Long-Moss, or Black Moss, so called.
1904 Bot. Gaz. 38 99 Tillandsia usneoides, popularly called ‘long moss’, ‘black moss’, or ‘Spanish moss’, is the most widely distributed representative of the..family Bromeliaceae.
black mustard n. see mustard n. 2.
black nightshade n. a Eurasian nightshade, Solanum nigrum, with greenish-white flowers and black berries.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 682 The blacke night-shade is present destruction vnto them.
1783 Encycl. Brit. X. 8204/2 The common black nightshade grows wild in gardens, fields, and dunghills, in this country; and becoming a troublesome weed, is rarely cultivated.
1843 Sat. Mag. 27 May 200/1 The Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum) also springs up wherever a spot of ground is suffered to become waste.
2009 Daily News (New Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 13 Mar. (Gardening section) 12 The plant that is the subject of most inquiries to the National Poison Centre is the black nightshade; in particular, its berries.
black oak n. chiefly N. Amer. any of several oak trees valued for their timber; esp. dyer's oak, Quercus velutina, of eastern North America, which has dark-coloured bark (cf. quercitron n.); (also) the timber of any of these trees.
[1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect i. v. 16 Of Oakes there be three kindes, the red Oake, white, and blacke.]
1659 in Early Rec. Town Portsmouth (Rhode Island) (1901) 377 Fortie fower acres of land..bounded..with a littel black Oake.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 92 The next is Black Oak, which is esteem'd a durable Wood, under Water.
1882 Econ. Geol. Illinois II. 105 Some regular post-oak flats..covered with post oak and black jack, and a few black-oak.
2005 C. Fergus Trees New Eng. 193 Black Oak can be difficult to distinguish from northern red oak, with which it freely hybridizes.
† black oak fern n. Obs. black spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball iii. lxii. 404 Dryopteris nigra, Blacke Oke Ferne.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. cdliii. 975 This is called of divers of the later Herbarists Drypoteris nigra, or blacke Oke Ferne, of the likenes that it hath with Drypoteris, which we haue called in English Oke Ferne.
1710 W. Salmon Botanologia I. cclx. 354/2 The third [kind of oak fern], or Black Oak Fern, is both Male and Female.
black oat n. any of several dark-hulled kinds of cultivated oat; esp. the European diploid species Avena strigosa, now chiefly grown for animal fodder and as a cover crop.Recorded earliest as an element in field names denoting land where black oats have been sown.
c1200 in A. H. Smith Place-names Westmorland (1967) I. 49 Blachateridding.
1450 in K. Cameron Place-names Derbyshire (1959) II. 435 Blakeoteacre.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandrie §14 There be .iii. maner of otes, that is to saye, redde otes, blacke otes, and roughe otes.
?1609 G. Chapman tr. Homer Twelue Bks. Iliads v. sig. L, Two horse to euery one, That eat white Barley and blacke Otes, and do no good at all.
1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Feb. xiii. 74 Nor does the Black-oat peel the Ground, so much as the White-oat does.
1880 A. J. Warden Angus or Forfarshire iv. xii. 182 In former times the bearded variety, commonly called black oats, was most largely sown, but they have been supplanted..by the common oats.
1910 F. L. Stevens & J. G. Hall Dis. Econ. Plants 350 In California black oats are reputed to be less subject to rust than white oats.
2001 New Scientist 3 Feb. 17/2 They fight weeds by planting winter crops such as black oats.
black olive n. (a) the fruit of the olive tree, Olea europaea, when ripe and purple-black; cf. olive n.1 2a; (b) a tropical American tree, Bucida buceras (family Combretaceae), the fruit of which resembles an olive.
1567 H. Granthan tr. Boccaccio Pleasaunt Disport Diuers Noble Personages iv. f. 19, The dry bough began to waxe greene, and within a while after to beare leaues, & not long after,..it was laden with blacke Olives.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. ii. ii. 106, I remember wee had blacke Oliues, which I had neuer seene before, and they were of a most pleasant taste.
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. ii. 221 This tree is called the Black-Olive in Jamaica.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. 177/2 The Olive-bark, or Black Olive of Jamaica, produces wood which is valuable on account of its not being liable to the attacks of insects.
1939 Times 27 Mar. 17/4 Serve with crisp toast and a salad of shredded celery and black olives.
2007 Claims Mag. (Nexis) Nov. (Iconoclast section) 94 Other popular trees, such as the Black Olive, have low wind resistance.
black oyster plant n. see oyster plant n. 2.
black parsley n. †(a) stone parsley, Sison amomum (obs.); (b) a shrubby umbelliferous plant native to Madeira, Melanoselinum decipiens, which has black seed heads.
1562 W. Turner 2nd Pt. Herball f. 139v, Sison..is called of som black perselye.
1827 R. Sweet Sweet's Hortus Britannicus 190 Melanoselinum. H. Black-parsley.
1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 3 A shrubby plant of this Order is now introduced into our gardens, called the Black Parsley.
1905 Encycl. Americana XV. at Thapsia, T. decipiens is the black parsley of Madeira, with a thick umbrella, or palm-like, crown of finely-cut foliage three or four feet across.
2007 B. P. Lawton Parsleys, Fennels, & Queen Anne's Lace viii. 125 Melanoselinum decipiens (black parsley)... This biennial native of Madeira grows up to 8 feet..tall or more.
black pear n. (more fully black pear of Worcester) a large yellowish and russet cooking pear which is depicted in sable (black) on the coat of arms of Worcester, England; also called black Worcester.
1666 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense (ed. 2) 45 Black-pear of Worcester Surrein.
1755 H. Glasse Art of Cookery (ed. 5) xxi, Yellow late Pear, Black Pear, White Nutmeg late Pear.
1876 Country 21 Dec. 556/3 The Black Pear of Worcester and Verulam are also often used for stewing and preserving.
2003 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 6 Sept. 48 The Worcester Pearmain, as famous in its time as Worcester's own black pears.
black peppercorn n. see peppercorn n. 1a.
black pine n. (a) any of several kinds of pine tree, esp. Pinus nigra of southern Europe and P. thunbergii of Japan; (b) = matai n.1
1683 J. Pettus Ess. Metallick Words at Pitch, in Fleta Minor ii, The white Pine yieldeth a white Gum, the Pitch or black Pine, a black Gum.
1788 T. Jefferson Let. 9 Aug. in Garden Bk. (1999) 140 Pinus picea. Black pine or pitch pine.
1851 Lyttelton (N.Z.) Times 28 June 6 The timber in [the groves] is chiefly Kaikatea, (white pine), Mahi, (black pine), Remu, (red pine)..and Totara.
1900 A. H. Kent Veitch's Man. Coniferæ (new ed.) 383 Pinus Thunbergi... Japanese black pine.
1914 Park & Cemetery Mar. 15/2 The Austrian, or black pine of Europe does well on the prairies and is the best looking hardy pine.
1987 K. Rushforth Tree Planting & Managem. (1990) 191/2 Japanese black pine..is more tolerant than most trees of sea spray.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 119 The matai is better for timber—known to the timber trade as ‘black pine’, and to botanists as Prumnopitys taxifolia.
black plum n. (a) any of several plum trees with dark-coloured fruit; the fruit of any of these trees; (now rare); (b) any of several other trees with dark-coloured plum-like fruit; esp. a small tree of eastern Australia, Diospyros australis (family Ebenaceae).
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole iii. xiii. 576 The Barberry plum is a great early blacke plum.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 106 The English large black Plum thrives well, as does the Cherry, being grafted thereon.
1837 W. Darlington Flora Cestrica 287 Numerous varieties of this [sc. Prunus domestica] are cultivated, here; but, with the exception of the Damascene, or black plum, the crop of fruit is very uncertain.
1855 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 7 Dec. 34/2 For spokes, poles, &c.—cargillia Australis (black plum).
1902 Nature 13 Nov. 47/2 The ‘black plum’ of Lord Howe Island..is shown to be new and described under the name Cryptocarpa Gregsoni.
1922 16th Ann. Rep. Hort. Soc., 1921 (Ontario Dept. Agric.) 47 The Black Plum, Prunus nigra, which is a common arborescent bush, or small tree in northern Ontario, is a beautiful object in bloom.
1993 G. Williams & T. Evans Hidden Rainforests 163/1 Yellow Persimmon or Black Plum Diospyros australis (Ebenaceae), is widely distributed in all rainforest types within the Manning.
black poplar n. a Eurasian poplar tree, Populus nigra, of which there are a number of cultivated varieties including the Lombardy poplar.
1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca, Populus, a tree callyd a popular, wherof one is callyd whyte poplar, whose stemme is long and playne.., the other is callyd blacke poplar, whyche hathe the barke rough, and fewer leaues than the whyte.
1597 W. Langham Garden of Health 504 The leaues & yong buds of blacke Poplar, stampt & applied, swageth the paine of the gout.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) xviii. §1. 80 The Black Poplar is frequently pollar'd when as big as ones arm, eight or nine foot from the ground.
1786 Gentleman's Mag. 56 i. 456 They make corks of the parenchyma, the second bark of the black poplar.
1859 W. S. Coleman Our Woodlands 76 Early in spring, when the branches of the Black Poplar are yet leafless, they are loaded with..a profusion of deep red catkins.
1952 P. Mann Systematics Flowering Plants ii. 140 Black Poplar may reach a height of 100 feet.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 134/1 Once you have an eye for them, it is hard to believe that mature black-poplars could ever have been mistaken for any of their characterless hybrids.
black poppy n. [after classical Latin nigrum papāver] a variety of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, with purple flowers and dark seeds; cf. white poppy n. at white adj. Special uses 1b(b).
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 242, Of the commune [popy], som is whyte, and..sum is blak..blak popy is good..in medicynes.
c1450 Med. Recipes (BL Add. 33996) in F. Heinrich Mittelengl. Medizinbuch (1896) 230 (MED), Tak burgenus of popeler..blak pope, & leues of mandrake, [etc.].
1575 J. Banister Needefull Treat. Chyrurg. sig. Oiii, Opium, The iuyce of black Poppie dried, colde and drie in the fourth degree, stupefactiue, and mortificatiue.
1662 J. A. Comenius Janua Linguarum Trilinguis xii. 21/1 The head of a black poppy being wounded (gasht) distilleth Opium, which hath the power to make men sleep.
1742 C. Owen Ess. Nat. Hist. Serpents i. vii. 21 The Turks take Opium..without any Preparation, it being merely the Juice of black Poppy, dried in the Sun, without any purification.
1878 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 22 59 The plants I saw were not the black poppy, but variously coloured, red, purple, &c., and apparently very healthy plants.
1998 Times (Nexis) 21 Nov., Last year, out of 15 square metres of black poppies, there was not one seedhead left at the end of the season.
black radish n. a black-skinned cultivar of the radish, Raphanus sativus, with peppery white flesh; also called Spanish radish.
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 463 For the blacke Reddish..the nature thereof is to runne vp to seede more speedily then the other.
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Raphanus, Great round black Radish, commonly call'd The Spanish Radish.
1869 S. Robinson Facts for Farmers I. v. 492 For winter use, the Spanish, or Black radish, of a sort called Rose-colored China, is sown in the fall, and gathered before freezing.
1919 U. P. Hedrick Sturtevant's Notes Edible Plants 487 Round Black Radish. This is a turnip-rooted or round form of a black radish.
2000 Esquire Dec. 155/2 His carpaccio of venison with black radishes and lemon oil has a perfect balance of gaminess and tang.
black raspberry n. N. Amer. = black cap n. 5.
1759 J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 452 We have four kinds of ye Rubus beside our common black rasberry.
1860 R. Hogg Fruit Man. 262 Black Cap... This is the Rubus occidentalis, called Black Raspberry or Thimbleberry by the Americans. The fruit has a fine brisk acid flavour, and is much used in America for pies and puddings.
1930 Pop. Mech. Aug. 257/1 Fruit growers are interested in a wild variety of black raspberry which was found in the Oregon woods.
1998 Chicago Daily Herald (Nexis) 28 Oct. 3 Unlike their musical friends, their jam sessions typically result in the real thing—jars and jars of homemade black raspberry, strawberry and peach jams.
black rice n. any of several varieties of rice with a dark-coloured husk.
1528 T. Paynell tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano Regimen Sanitatis Salerni sig. Pij, And speciallye suche as haue moche huske, as beanes and blacke ryce. Also the huske of them all norysheth worse than the pithe within.
1701 J. Collier tr. L. Moréri Great Hist. Dict. (ed. 2) II. at Onor, Here is Pepper much heavier than the common, and black Rice that is far better than the white.
1837 Madras Jrnl. Lit. & Sci. Jan. 97 Krishen Sall—this is a coarser description of rice, and rather dark. It is called the black rice, and sells about twenty-two seers for the rupee.
1923 Inventory Seeds & Plants Imported (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 26 Black rice, much liked as a breakfast food by the Europeans in Chiengmai. When boiled it is deep purple and has a very fine nutty flavor.
2008 M. Simmons Things Cooks Love v. 165 Black rice can be short grain with a sticky texture or medium grain and not sticky.
black root n. (a) any of various North American medicinal plants with dark-coloured roots; esp. a kind of speedwell, Veronicastrum virginicum, native to moist ground in the eastern United States; (also) the root (or a preparation of the root) of any of these plants; (b) any of various plant diseases accompanied by a blackening of the roots.
1709 W. Byrd Diary 13 Feb. (1941) 4, I sent him some blackroot..for the gripes.
1843 T. Talbot Jrnl. 8 Sept. (1931) 45 We traded some Kooyah or Black root,..a black, sticky, suspicious looking compound, of very disagreeable odor.
1851 C. Cist Sketches & Statistics Cincinnati 211 Concentrated extracts of vegetable medical articles..such as..leptandrin or black-root extracts.
1917 Michigan Crop Rep. July 6 Very heavy rain on June 27th, land nearly all flooded, corn very small, sugar beets have blackroot.
1933 J. K. Small Man. Southeastern Flora 1400 Pterocaulon... Black-root... The thick black root gives this plant its common name.
1988 R. Mabey Compl. New Herbal 112/3 Veronicastrum virginicum... Black root... This is a bitter root which when dried acts as a gentle laxative and liver tonic.
2003 G. Loebenstein & G. Thottappilly Virus & Virus-like Dis. Major Crops xvii. 428 ‘Black root’ is a lethal systemic necrosis that affects common bean cultivars.
† black rubber vine n. Obs. rare a West African plant producing a black sap which is used as rubber.
1887 C. A. Moloney Sketch Forestry W. Afr. 90 The black-rubber vine, known to the natives as ‘Duah Kurrie’, grows in even greater profusion than the white, but its juice is not collected.
† black rue n. N.Z. Obs. (also black rue pine) = matai n.1
1864 3rd Ann. Rep. Acclimatisation Soc. Victoria 35 Nageia (Podocarpus) spicata, Br. Black Rue of New Zealand. Tree 80 feet high; wood pale, soft, close and durable.
1871 Otago (Dunedin, N.Z.) Witness 27 May 5/1 The black rue pine (Podocarpus spicata) is another useful timber tree.
black sage n. (a) any of several tropical American shrubs used (esp. formerly) medicinally; esp. Cordia curassavica (family Boraginaceae); (b)U.S. either of two blue-flowered plants of the family Lamiaceae ( Labiatae) native to western North America, Trichostema lanatum and Salvia mellifera, both important as honey plants.
[1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados vi. 159 (heading) The Black Sage-bush.]
1759 W. Hillary Observ. Changes Air & Dis. Barbados 313 If the Humours are carried to and affect the Head, bathing their Feet in a warm Decoction of Viburnium (called black Sage here) and Vesicatories must be applied.
1874 Overland Monthly Dec. 524/2 The ridges between these dry washes are..covered more thickly with the aromatic bitter Indian wormwood, or black sage.
1917 Domest. Beekeeper 1 Jan. 20/2 Salvia Mellifera—Black Sage.., found as far north as San Francisco, southward and southern California.
1985 J. Carew in S. Brown & J. Wickham Oxf. Bk. Caribbean Short Stories (1999) 102 A pair of bluesakees were playing mating games in a low thicket of black sage and ants bush.
2001 D. Weintraub Monterey Bay Trails 78 On a sandy, rocky track cross a hillside of coastal scrub, mostly black sage.
black sapote n. the edible fruit of a kind of evergreen ebony tree, Diospyros digyna, with white flesh which turns dark brown when ripe; (also) the tree which bears this fruit, native to Mexico and Central America.
1872 Rep. Explor. & Surv. Ship-canal (U.S. Navy Dept.) 120 The black sapote is a delicious fruit, resembles the apricot, except that its skin is of a rusty color, and the central seed is very large and black.
1920 W. Popenoe Man. Trop. & Subtrop. Fruits xi. 370 In the Mexican lowlands the black sapote, if grown on deep, rich, and moist soil, becomes a large and handsome tree.
2007 Seattle (Washington) Post-Intelligencer (Nexis) 10 Mar. 13 What sets the black sapote apart from any other fruit I know is its light but distinct chocolate flavor.
black-seed n. now rare = black medick n.
1763 J. Mills New Syst. Pract. Husbandry III. 343 The smaller kind of this, commonly called none-such, or black-seed, is the Trifolium luteum, lupulinum, minimum.
1863 R. C. A. Prior On Pop. Names Brit. Plants 24 Black-seed, the Nonesuch, from its black head of legumes.
1922 Amer. Botanist 28 71 Perhaps..‘black nonesuch’ and ‘black grass’ may refer to its disreputable qualities though ‘black-seed’ seems to put the emphasis elsewhere.
black snakeroot n. chiefly N. Amer. any of several North American plants with a medicinal root or rhizome; spec. (a) black cohosh, Actaea racemosa (sometimes called Cimicifuga racemosa); (b) any of several sanicles, esp. Sanicula marilandica.
1698 G. Thomas Hist. Acct. Pensilvania 19 There grows also in great plenty the Black Snake-Root, (fam'd for its sometimes preserving, but often curing the Plague).
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica xxxv. 611 Snakeroot is frequently..adulterated with the Roots of the Plant call'd Virginian Asarum or black Snakeroot, but this is easily discovered, the Roots of that Plant being black.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. at Ducksfoot, Black snakeroot, or Mayapple.
1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingdom 380 Sanicula marilandica, called in the United States Black Snakeroot.
1900 N. Blanchan Nature's Garden 224 The Sanicle or Black Snakeroot..lifts spreading, two to four rayed umbels of insignificant-looking but interesting greenish-white florets.
2002 T. Boland et al. Michigan Gardener's Guide (rev. ed.) 110/1 For handsome foliage and lofty flowers, black snakeroot, Cimicifuga racemosa, is a dramatic choice.
black soybean n. a variety of soybean with a black skin that is high in protein and low in carbohydrate; (also) the plant that yields this bean.
1895 Useful Plants Japan (Agric. Soc. Japan) i. 5 Glysine hispida, Moench, Black soy-bean..; an annual leguminous plant cultivated in ordinary dry land... The beans have a black skin.
1976 Lima (Ohio) News 16 Sept. d8/4 The review will also have a colonial garden in which flax, open pollinated corn and black soybeans grown in the early days of America have been planted.
2004 R. Rosedale & C. Colman Rosedale Diet vi. 90 Black soybeans are a type of soybean that is especially high in fiber and protein.
2008 N.Y. Mag. 27 Oct. 54/2 We had high hopes for kuromame—a black soybean-flavored candy—but nobody liked it.
black spleenwort n. either of two small ferns commonly found on rocks and walls, maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, and (now more usually) the Eurasian fern A. adiantum-nigrum, which has triangular fronds with a dark base to the stem.
1777 S. Robson Brit. Flora 286 Asplenium Trichomanes... Black Spleenwort. English black Maidenhair. Leaves pinnate... On moist rocks and old walls.
1840 E. Newman Hist. Brit. Ferns (1844) 255 The Black Spleenwort..occurs on rocks as a native habitat.
1901 Hist. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club 17 271 In the moist crevices a profusion of Aspenium trichomanes, the black spleenwort. Nowhere have I seen more beautiful forms of this elegant fern.
1995 Guardian 5 Dec. i. 12/7 The black spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum)..gets its name from the black stalks that can often be as long as the leafy fronds.
black spruce n. a small spruce tree, Picea mariana, of Canada and the northern United States; (also) the wood of this tree, now chiefly used for pulp and paper.
1741 P. Collinson Let. 25 Feb. in J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 151 Look out sharp for the Balm of Gilead Firs, & Black, Red & White Spruce as Mr. Dudley Calls them.
1838 J. C. Loudon Arboretum IV. cxiii. 2313 The branches spread more in a horizontal than in a drooping direction, like those of the Norway spruce; and, consequently, the black spruce..has not the gloomy aspect of the European tree.
1900 H. L. Keeler Our Native Trees 472 The Black Spruce is essentially a Canadian tree growing abundantly in the Labrador peninsula and forming great forests in Manitoba.
2003 D. Bennet & T. Tiner Wild Woods Guide 284/1 Black spruce can make-do-with-less better than all the trees which crowd it out in good soils.
black sugar maple n. = black maple n.
1831 J. Holbrook et al. Sci. Tracts I. 203 Black Sugar Maple. A tree somewhat resembling the sugar maple..grows in Virginia.
1897 Meehan's Monthly Dec. 233/1 The Acer nigrum, or Black Sugar Maple, has the leaves of a dark green color on both sides.
2006 E. Small Culinary Herbs (ed. 2) 89 This distinctive form of sugar maple is known as black maple and black sugar maple, and is often recognized as a separate species.
black tang n. chiefly Sc. (now rare) bladderwrack, Fucus vesiculosus.
1796 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XVII. 233* The sea-oak (Fucus vesiculosus, Lin.), which we denominate black tang.
1874 Trans. Highland & Agric. Soc. Scotl. 6 64 Sea wrack (F. vesiculosus), known by the name of ‘sea oak’, or ‘black tang’, is found a little above low-water mark.
1978 A. Fenton Northern Isles viii. 64 The types of seaweed preferred for kelp were the wracks, Fucus and Ascophyllum, known by such names as, for example, yellow, black and prickly tang.
black truffle n. any of several dark-coloured kinds of truffle (genus Tuber); esp. the valuable Perigord truffle, Tuber melanosporum.
1702 J. K. tr. F. Massialot Court & Country Cook 202 The Breasts of the Partridges, or other Fowls, must be cover'd with Slices of black Truffles, and all dispos'd of in good order.
1838 Times 15 Dec. 8/2 (advt.) The nobility and gentry are respectfully informed, that a weekly supply of the fresh Black Truffle is received at Morel's.
1917 J. Y. Norton Mrs. Norton's Cook-bk. ii. 305 The black truffle has the highest repute and its consumption is enormous.
2007 G. Brennan Pig in Provence iii. 99 The object of their desire is the black truffle... It looks like a lump of coal or a large dog's nose, dark and rough to the touch.
black trumpet n. the edible dark-coloured fruiting body of the fungus Craterellus cornucopioides (family Cantharellaceae), found chiefly in woodland habitats in North Temperate areas.
1979 G. Kibby Mushrooms & Toadstools 23 Many other edible fungi can also be recommended among which the best are..the Black Trumpets, or Horn of Plenty, Craterellus cornucopioides.
1996 Time Out N.Y. 26 June 18/2 Tasty mushrooms tend to be given romantic names, such as chanterelles, summer boletes, black trumpets and hens of the woods.
2008 D. Waltuck & A. Friedman Chanterelle 177 Black trumpets are thought of as a poor man's truffle in Europe, but I've always liked their earthy, nutty flavor.
black walnut n. †(a) (also black walnut tree) the common walnut tree, Julglans regia (obs. rare); (b) any of a group of North and South American walnut trees producing four-chambered nuts with indehiscent hulls, esp. Juglans nigra, chiefly of eastern and central areas; (also) the heavy dark-coloured timber of any of these trees; freq. with distinguishing word.
1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Geogr. Hist. Afr. iii. 137 Such slippers as are accounted most fine and costly are made of blacke and white mulberie-tree, of blacke walnut-tree, and of the Iujubatree.
1612 R. Johnson New Life Virginea sig. B3, They cut downe wood for wanscot, blacke walnut tree, Spruce, Cedar & Deale.
1754 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina I. 67 The Black Walnut. Most parts of the Northern Continent of America, abound with these Trees, particularly Virginia and Maryland.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. (1866) 153 Heart-wood..is generally of a different color,..brown in Black-Walnut, black in Ebony, etc.
1910 W. L. Jepson Silva Calif. 195 The California Black Walnut and Eastern Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) are often grown near each other in cultivation, especially as street trees.
1942 E. Ferber Saratoga Trunk i. 5 They say the tube and the loo and the washstand are all boxed in black walnut.
2002 Country Life 19 Dec. 82/2 Summer visitors sit under a magnificent black walnut, Juglans nigra, admirable as a shade-caster.
black wattle n. either of two Australian acacias, Acacia binervata, and (now usually) A. mearnsii, which is native to southern Australia but widely grown elsewhere, chiefly as a source of tannin and timber or to prevent soil erosion, in some cases becoming an invasive weed.
1802 D. Collins Acct. Eng. Colony New S. Wales II. ix. 88 A similar timber was called the Black Wattle.
1863 Technologist 3 5 The gum of the black wattle (Acacia mollissima, Willd.)..is very inferior to it [sc. that of the silver wattle].
1955 P. White Tree of Man 206 Sometimes in stormy weather gulls came..and glided and dipped above the black wattles.
2006 S. Unwin S. Afr. Wildlife (rev. ed.) 26 Another significant threat comes from the steady advance of invasive alien plants, such as the Australian black wattle (Acacia mearnsii).
black willow n. any of various willows with dark-coloured bark, esp. Salix nigra, found on riverbanks and swampy ground in eastern North America.
[1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvi. xxxvii. 485 In Asia, they make account of three sorts of Willows: the blacke, which they employ to wind and bind withall, so tough and pliant it is: the white..: as for the third, it is the shortest of all other, and they call it Helix, or Helice.]
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) xx. 90 The black Willow is Planted of stakes of three years growth.
1794 J. Hodskinson Farmer's Guide 29 In gaps and decayed places [in hedges],..where there is not a sufficency of live stuff for stakes and plashers, make use of black willow or sallow stakes.
1841 W. A. Leighton Flora of Shropshire 485 Salix Pentandra, Linn. Sweet Bay-leaved Willow... Much sought after by the Irish harvestmen, who call it ‘the black willow’, and cut it for their shillelahs.
1980 Jrnl. Manx Museum No. 89. 23/1 For basket-weaving the ‘black-willow’ was preferred.
2002 C. Fergus Trees of Pennsylvania 59 Ragged, rugged black willow (Salix nigra) slouches on the banks of streams in farming country.
black Worcester n. (in full black Worcester pear) = black pear n.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (Monthly Kal., July), Fruits in prime and yet lasting... Pears... Black Worcester (baking).
1859 New Eng. Farmer 419 The most common and hardy old pear trees we see around us, are the old ‘Iron’, or ‘Black Worcester’ variety.
1908 Gardeners Chron. 21 Nov. 361 The Black Worcester Pear is one of the best that can be planted for forming a standard tree.
2008 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 12/7 Rare fruit varieties under threat include: the Arlingham Schoolboy apple, the black Worcester pear..and the Denbigh plum.
blackwort n. comfrey, Symphytum officinale, which has a black root used (esp. formerly) as a herbal remedy.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 661 It is called..in English Comfrey..of some Knit backe, and Blackwoort.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Asne, Oreille d'asne, th' hearbe Comfrey, knit-backe, knit-wort, blacke-wort.
a1760 C. Alston Lect. Materia Medica (1770) I. xlv. 526 Comfrey.., Bone-set, Blackwort.—This has a larger branched and wrinkled root, of a black colour on the outside, white within.
1837 B. H. Barton & T. Castle Brit. Flora Medica I. 212 In rural dialects it has also the names of Consound, Knit-back, Bone-set, and Black-wort.
2006 S. Foster & R. Johnson Nature's Med. (2008) 115/1 Comfrey roots have a black exterior and fleshy whitish interior that exudes a slimy, mucilaginous juice (hence the common names ‘blackwort’ and ‘slippery root’).
Compounds C1. Instrumental (esp. in sense B. 2).Some of the following could be construed as parasynthetic compounds of the adjective: compare Special uses 1.
a.
1458 Will in Ipswich Probate Registry Bk. ii. f. 5, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Blak, My Black lynnyd gownd.
1784 London Mag. July 41/2 He was buried in the Isle of Enlli..where there was a college of Black Cowled Monks.
1846 J. H. Ingraham Spectre Steamer & Other Tales 17 The engine was set in motion—our black cloaked passenger took the wheel, which at his touch, became a wheel of fire.
1977 ‘J. le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy iii. xvi. 362 Jerry was admitted to the presence of a tiny, very senior black-suited Cambodian sent by Phnom Penh to handle noisome correspondents.
2004 A. Greig In Another Light (2005) 122 Hoodie craws sat on fenceposts by the sea like black-cloaked sinister ministers.
b.
black-bordered adj.
1774 Descr. Cathedral Church Salisbury 111 On a white marble, black bordered, is this inscription.
1839 Dickens Nicholas Nickleby i. 2 A black-bordered letter to inform him how his uncle..was dead.
1998 R. Stone Damascus Gate i. 5 Black-bordered photographs of young martyrs, slain far away in the Azerbaijani war.
black-clad adj.
1596 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) x. lvi. 250 The black-clad Scaffold.
a1672 A. Bradstreet Wks. (1867) 223, I heard the merry grashopper then sing, The black clad Cricket, bear a second part.
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise I. i. 375 Her friends black-clad and moving mournfully.
1942 L. Brackett Sorcerer of Rhiannon in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 46/2 He had a needle gun in his hand, and six or seven black-clad policemen just behind him.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 16 Mar. 141/1 Those black-clad misfits in '80s teen movies.
black-clothed adj.
1800 J. Rennell Geogr. Syst. Herodotus v. 87 Tamerlane found in the mountains of Kawuck..a tribe who are named by his historian Sherefeddin, Sia-poshians, or black clothed.
1873 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 322 Our parson bends his black-clothed back in the sun.
1998 G. Lynds Mosaic (1999) iii. 33 The black-clothed thief expertly swiveled and fired into the forehead of the driver.
black-draped adj.
1845 A. Marsh-Caldwell Love & Duty 19/1 The teams of black-draped horses, tossing their plumes, with necks gravely arched, as if aware of the solemn part they had to play.
1898 Westm. Gaz. 28 May 10/1 The bowed, black-draped figure passing sadly from the shadows in the Abbey.
1904 Daily Chron. 8 Dec. 3/2 The black-draped scaffold at Whitehall.
2002 S. Mackey Reckoning x. 349 Black-draped women begging for water in southern Iraq raised little sympathy in the United States.
black-edged adj.
1706 J. Petiver Classical Catal. 85 Yellow black edged Luzon Butterfly.
1865 C. M. Yonge Clever Woman I. i. 5 Hurry to the drawing-room, and tear open the black-edged letter.
2002 J. Maxwell Point Fury i. v. 37 Chris..looked up to discover an ominous sky through the big windows, with black-edged clouds rolling in off the ocean.
black-margined adj.
1808 Lit. Panorama Oct. 57 Alas! we have received no black-margined summons to attend his funeral.
2006 Oregonian (Nexis) 6 Apr. 22 She touches a tapestry of plants on the shelves—some with furrowed and ridged leaves, shiny, smooth, olive or blue-green,..curled, black-margined, velvety.
black-robed adj.
1673 W. Penn Wisdom Justified vii. 109 For this blessed Testimony we must be thus abused, defamed, and set at nought by the Black-robed-Rabbies of this World.
1786 H. Lee Errors of Innocence I. lxii. 212 How the black robed gentry of Doctors Commons rave at the precedent.
1863 M. L. Whately Ragged Life Egypt iv. 23 Her black-robed female relatives support her on each side.
1997 W. Dalrymple From Holy Mountain (1998) v. 318 A hover of black-robed archbishops and metropolitans conducted me into a tall, vaulted reception room.
black-rimmed adj.
1704 Nat. Hist. in L. Wafer New Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. (ed. 2) vi. 216 The Black-rimm'd Butterfly.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. vii. [Aeolus] 125 Staring through his blackrimmed spectacles.
2003 Daily Tel. 1 Sept. 5/5 He wears black-rimmed metal glasses and has a Manchester accent.
black-stained adj.
1773 J. Robertson Poems 8 Oh, what a black-stain'd marble heart.
1888 R. Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) II. iii. 99 The black-stained staircase that leads to an upper chamber.
1939 C. W. Towne Her Majesty Montana 114 Butte prospectors had located quartz on a black-stained reef.
2001 Art Room Catal. Spring Preview 2/2 Decoration comes in the form of ‘waisted’ front legs and black-stained architectural uprights set in threes into the back.
c. In sense B. 9, as black-led, black-owned, black-run, etc.
1959 N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Aug. 4/6 The UANM head explained his group's ‘Buy Black’ policy,..which entails buying first from black owned business.
1965 Ebony July 152/2 A large number of Negro staff members..say the organization must be ‘black-led, black-controlled, and black-dominated’.
1977 Third Way 3 Nov. 11/2 Black-led churches are the only institutions offering unrestricted leadership possibilities to black people.
1986 P. Benson Black Orpheus, Transition, & Mod. Cultural Awakening in Afr. Pref. p. xi, South Africa's first black-written, black-edited, black-run literary and artistic review, The Classic.
1994 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 6 Oct. a22/1 Compton long has boasted of being the largest black-run city west of the Mississippi.
2000 Business Day (S. Afr.) 28 Jan. 1/2 The Competition Tribunal has approved the purchase of 100% of black-owned oil company Zenex's shares by SA oil company Engen.
C2. Objective in sense B. 1.
black-maker n.
?1881 Census Eng. & Wales: Instr. Clerks classifying Occupations & Ages (?1885) 58 Dye, Paint manufacture... Black Maker.
1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §158 Black maker, a colour mixer..preparing black pigments or paints from charcoal, graphite, calcined ivory or horn, carbon black, drop black, etc.
1995 Rubber & Plastics (Nexis) 16 Jan. 13 Black makers were plagued by growing raw material prices and a tight supply in 1994.
C3.
black–white adj. of, relating to, or designating interactions or relationships between black people and white people.
1895 Princeton Contrib. Psychol. 1 166 Is it not just the social repugnance to black-white marriages?
1935 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 4 309 Many are the non-scientific solutions for the problem of black–white race relations.
1969 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 34 891/2 The problematic power disparities which are general concomitants of such black-white interaction.
2001 H. Gilbert Postcolonial Plays 14/1 Such a romanticised vision is seen to simplify post-contact history into a reductive black-white dichotomy, an inadequate formulation for understanding the complexities of contemporary South Africa.
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black, adj. and n. Pronunciation: Brit. /blak/ , U.S. /blæk/
Forms: α. OE blacc- (Northumbrian, inflected form), OE blaec (rare), OE blæc, OE bleac (rare), OE blec, OE (rare) ME–15 blak, OE–eME blac- (inflected form), OE (rare)–ME blac, eME blache, eME blæcc- (inflected form), MEblakke, ME–16 blacke, ME– black, 18 bhlock (Irish English (Wexford)); Sc. pre-17 blac, pre-17 blak, pre-17 17– black.
β. ME blaak, ME blaake, ME blaike, ME–16 blake; Sc. pre-17 blaik, pre-17 blake.
γ. Sc. pre-17 blauk (perh. transmission error).
Etymology: Cognate with Middle Dutch blac ink, Old Saxon blac ink (Middle Low German blak ink, black dye, black colour), Old High German blah- (only in blah-faro of the colour of ink, blah-māl niello decoration (Middle High German blach-māl ), blah-mālōn to decorate with niello); further etymology uncertain; on formal grounds the word could be from a base related to the Germanic bases of blank adj. and the various forms discussed at blik v., but since this would give an expected meaning ‘shining, white’ there is an obvious semantic difficulty; many have sought to resolve this by hypothesizing that the word meaning ‘black’ originated as a past participle (with the meaning ‘burnt, blackened’) of a verb meaning ‘to burn (brightly)’ derived from this base; this verb may perhaps be reflected by Middle Dutch blaken (Dutch blaken) to flame, to burn.Forms in North Germanic languages.
Old Icelandic blakkr and related words in other North Germanic languages probably show a development from the Germanic base of blank adj., and hence, although perhaps ultimately related, do not show close morphological parallels. It is likely that the various different meanings documented in Old Icelandic (probably ‘pale’, ‘yellowy brown’, ‘dark brown’, and ‘grey’, chiefly in describing the colour of animals) show semantic developments unrelated to that shown by the English word.
Old Icelandic blek ink and related words in other North Germanic languages probably show a borrowing from Old English: see further bleck n. (which may show a reborrowing from early Scandinavian). With use as noun compare also blatch n.
Form history.
The β. forms reflect early Middle English lengthening in open syllables (although some instances of β. spellings may correspond to pronunciations with a short vowel, and likewise some instances of α. spellings may correspond to pronunciations with a long vowel).
From an early date the orthographical forms of this word and of blake adj. show some overlap, and consequently the two words can sometimes be difficult to distinguish where the context does not make clear which word is intended. In addition to identity in certain spellings, occasional overlap of pronunciation perhaps also occured already in Old English due to the shortening of long vowels before consonant clusters (i.e. in compounds and some inflected forms ofblake adj.); in Middle English, after lengthening in open syllables in inflected forms of black adj. (compare β. forms), the two words would potentially have had the same pronunciation in northern dialects. In some instances it is unclear which word is shown by a particular example (compare also note at sense A. 4a); a selection of ambiguous examples is given below. (The two Old English verse examples (quots. OE1, OE2) appear to show respectively a metrically short form, i.e. black adj., in a context where one might expect blake adj., and a metrically long form, i.e. blake adj., in a context where one might expect black adj.) Compare:eOE Let. to Edward the Elder (Sawyer 1445) in F. E. Harmer Sel. Eng. Hist. Docs. 9th & 10th Cent. (1914) 30 Ða wæs ic ðara monna sum ðe ðærto genemned wæran, & Wihtbord & Ælfric..& Byrhthelm & Wulfhun ðes blaca æt Sumortune.
OE Phoenix 296 Þonne is se finta fægre gedæled, sum brun, sum basu, sum blacum splottum searolice beseted [L. fulvo distincta metallo].
OE Christ & Satan 195 Læte him to bysne hu þa blacan feond for oferhygdum ealle forwurdon.
c1225 (▸?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl. 34) (1938) 8 His leor deaðlich & blac & elheowet.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 9924 Ænne stunde he wes blac and on heuwe swiðe wak. ane while he wes reod.
c1330 Roland & Vernagu l. 434 [Charlemagne was] of a stern sight, Blac of here & rede of face.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm. 1396) 179 (MED), If þou wolt make hem [sc. hairs] blac [L. albos].
c1400 (▸?c1380) Cleanness l. 747 (MED), I am bot erþe ful evel and usle so blake.
c1425 Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. l. 2525 (MED), Þe riȝt weye he toke To ship ageyn, pale & blak of hewe.
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae 2 (MED), Ther were flourys bothe blewe and blake.
c1475 (▸a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Ireland) (1842) 5 Alle bare was the body, and blak by the bone.
a1500 Life St. Alexius (Titus) l. 236 (MED), No man..hym knwe, So was he lene and blake of hewe.
Semantic history.
Comparative evidence indicates that swart adj. shows the reflex of the more usual colour term for ‘black’ in early Germanic (as still in Old English), which has gradually been replaced by black in this basic meaning in English. Compare the following Old English quotation, in which the basic Latin colour term niger is glossed as swart adj., while two other semantically similar words are rendered by black adj.:OE Ælfric Gram. (Durh.) 27 Niger sweart, ater blac, teter blac.
Compare also the earlier attestation of swart adj. as a second element of compounds in sense A. 1c (see quot. OE at sense A. 1c).
Metaphorical and figurative uses of words meaning ‘black’ with negative connotations similar to those found in English are widespread in other European languages, frequently in an antonymic relationship with senses of words meanings ‘white’.
Use in names.
The word occurs early as byname and surname, probably often in sense A. 2a. In early instances, it is frequently impossible to distinguish this from onomastic use of blake adj. (compare quot. eOE above), unless there is a disambiguating context or source as in quots. eOE, 1334-5 at sense A. 2a. In Old English the word also occasionally occurs by itself as a male personal name or as an element in personal names (compare discussion at black man n.).
Similarly, the word occurs frequently in boundary markers in Anglo-Saxon charters and in place names, but, as it usually occurs in inflected forms and compounds, is especially difficult to distinguish formally from blake adj., if the geography of the location does not supply sufficient clues. Compare:OE Bounds (Sawyer 786) in D. Hooke Worcs. Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds (1990) 215 Of hagan geate to þære blacan æc.
OE Bounds (Sawyer 1248) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1885) I. 117 Of gibbe felde in þa blaca dic, andlang blaca dic into beferiþi.
OE Bounds (Sawyer 360) in S. Miller Charters of New Minster, Winchester (2001) 19 Andlang streames on ðone blacan pol, of ðam blacan pole on hwelpes dell.
Occasionally, interchange with another place-name element within the transmission suggests which of the two words is involved, as Blacbec (river name), Westmorland (1170–84; now Black Beck), also attested as Blabec (1200–14; compare blae adj.).
Use with reference to the Benedictines.
Earlier currency in sense A. 2b is perhaps implied by the following example (if Robertson's interpretation is accepted of the opaque blake had boc as meaning ‘book of the Black Order’, i.e. a copy of the Benedictine Rule):OE List of Service Bks., Bury St. Edmunds in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 250 Þas bocas haueð Salomon preost, þæt is þe codspel traht & þe martyrliua..& Sigar preost þe leceboc & blake had boc, & Æilmer ðe grete sater & ðe litle tropere forbeande & ðe Donatum. xv bocas.
However, reference to Benedictines as ‘Black Monks’ is not attested until considerably later (see Black Monk n. and its parallels in other languages), and several other solutions to this crux have been proposed; see further M. Lapidge & H. Gneuss Learning & Lit. in Anglo-Saxon Eng. (1985) 74–6.
A. adj. I. lit. 1.
a. Designating the darkest colour possible, that of soot, coal, the sky on a moonless night in open country, and a small hole in a hollow object; of or having this colour; (also) so near this as to have no recognizable colour, very dark.The quality of being black is due physically to the complete absence or absorption of light, though in practice it is generally classed as a colour (cf. colour n.1 1a).
The colour tends to be associated with evil and melancholy (cf. branch A. II.), and in Western society is the traditional colour of mourning (cf. mourning black n.).
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) ii. xiii. 144 He..hæfde blæc feax [L. nigro capillo] & blacne ondwlitan.
OE Beowulf 1801 Hrefn blaca heofones wynne bliðheort bodode.
OE Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 12 Niger coruus blac hrem.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 8832 Ane blake claðe.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 2461 (MED), Þan lai he þar so blac so pych.
c1400 (▸?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud 622) l. 6111 (MED), Þe selue men of þe londe Weren blake so colowȝy bronde.
▸1440 Promp. Parv. (Harl. 221) 38/1 Blak, Niger, ater.
a1450 York Plays 501 In helle to dwelle with feendes blake.
1542 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1908) VIII. 74 Thre elnis blak sating.
1551 W. Turner New Herball i. sig. H vjv, The wood hath a black color and is myche desyred of men for to make pypes.
1598 Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 264 To looke like her are Chimnie-sweepers blake.
1611 Bible (A.V.) Matt. v. 36 Thou canst not make one haire white or blacke.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 88 From Small-coal ensueth the black colour and quick accension.
1670 F. Sandford Order Funeral Duke of Albemarle sig. A/2, A Bed of State of Black Velvet..with Black Plumes at the Four corners of the Tester.
1770 G. Washington Jrnl. 15 Oct. (1925) I. 409 The Soil..being as black as Coal.
1785 J. Imison School of Arts (1790) I. 194 Its back part is black, to stifle the rays that are reflected upon it.
1807 J. Robinson Archæol. Græca v. v. 425 They put on mourning garments, which were always black.
1842 Tennyson Gardener's Daughter in Poems (new ed.) II. 20 That hair More black than ashbuds in the front of March.
1866 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 370/2 In order to make the letters more visible they painted the stone of a black colour.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman II. 1449 Printer's ink has no vegetable basis, though its black colour is due to the element carbon.
1968 J. Turner Requiem for Two Sisters i. 5 The vicar..had never thought it part of his duty to dress in a black suit and dog-collar all the time.
2001 N. Weinstock As long as she needs Me 32 The third passenger..was a thin woman in a witchy black dress.
b. Of a very dark colour (esp. a shade of red, brown, or purple) closely approaching black.Recorded earliest in blackberry n.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 129 Flaui uel mori, blace berian.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Juliana (Royal) l. 364 (MED), Hare ahne blake blod to spitten ant te speowen.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. xxxiii. 1295 Drastes of blak wyne.
a1475 Liber Cocorum (Sloane) (1862) 7 (MED), Take black sugur for mener menne.
1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum iv. vii. f. 30/2, Other Beasts haue blacker bloud & thicker then mans bloud, and namelye Bulls and Asses.
1671 J. Archer Every Man his own Doctor i. xii. 88 All black wines, or deep Red are of thicker substance, and for the most part sweet, and nourish very much.
1715 Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. i. 608 The Priest himself..Pours the black Wine.
1853 C. Knight Once upon a Time (1859) 417 On every road-side was what was familiarly termed ‘the black ditch’. In every alley was a lesser black ditch.
1859 J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany i. 3 The blackest of port-wine.
1932 ‘L. G. Gibbon’ Sunset Song ii. 125 She..saw father lying still in his blood, black blood it looked on his face where he'd fallen and mischieved himself against a stone.
2000 H. Stevenson Instr. for Visitors (2002) 155 The soil in the vineyards on the terraced cliffs is brick red, and the vines produce a grape which is made into a thick, black glutinous wine.
c. With the names of various objects prefixed, by way of comparison.coal-, jet-, pitch-, raven-black: see the first element.
[OE Vercelli Homilies (1992) iv. 102 Oðre hwile he bið blæc & æhiwe; hwilum he bið collsweart.]
c1275 (▸?a1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) l. 75 (MED), Þin eȝene boþ colblake & brode.
a1477 Bk. of Curtesye (Oriel 79 (2)) (1882) l. 44 Youre nayles loke they be not geet blake.
1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie ii. v. 197 Tuscus..Hath drawn false lights from pitch-black loueries.
1648 N. Ward Mercurius Anti-mechanicus 36 Like a soot-black Chimney-sweepers fist sheathed in a pure-white Glove.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 6 In the sloe-black eye of the Dragon-fly or Adderbolt.
1710 London Gaz. No. 4782/4, Stolen or stray'd..a cole black Horse.
1771 P. Parsons Newmarket II. 89 On his head, observe the jett-black glossy velvet cap.
1859 E. D. E. N. Southworth Hidden Hand 74 His noble, coal-black steed.
1896 A. Cahan Yekl iv. 71 Her hair was concealed under a voluminous wig of a pitch-black hue.
1932 Collier's 9 Jan. 25/4 The sun seemed to stream through a sudden rift in pit-black skies.
1989 B. Robinson Withnail & I (1998) 25 (stage direct.) A jade streak in his hair and night-black shades.
2010 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Jan. 44/1 Lung-cauterizing hikes up ancient, slippery slopes, followed by torturous crawls over peat-black burns.
2. Characterized in some way by this quality or colour.
a. Having black hair or eyes; dark-complexioned. Cf. black Irish adj. and n. at Special uses 5a. Now rare.In early use chiefly with reference to the (descriptive) surnames or nicknames of particular individuals.
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) v. xi. 414 Wæs ðis tosceaden hweðre, þætte for hiora missenlice feaxes hiwe oðer wæs cueden se blaca Heawald, oðer se hwita Heawald [L. unus Niger Heuuald, alter Albus Heuuald diceretur].
?c1190 Reginald of Durham Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici (1847) cxlii. 417 In domo Herveii de Dunelmo cognomento Blache, id est Nigri.
1334–5 (▸OE) Writ of Edward the Confessor, Ramsey (Sawyer 1110) in F. E. Harmer Anglo-Saxon Writs (1952) 262 Brandes gerde, & Leofgares gerde & Ælfwines gerde þe Blace [L. virgatam Alfwini Nigri].
1487 (▸a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) xix. 556, I dred me sair for the blak dowglass.
a1500 Liber Pluscardensis (Marchm.) (1877) I. 284 Comitissa Marchiæ, dicta vulgariter Blac Annes of Dunbar.
c1525 J. Rastell Of Gentylnes & Nobylyte sig. C.iv, I am content wyth blak maud my wyfe.
a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) ii. i. 134 How if she be blacke and witty?
1661 S. Pepys Diary 30 Apr. (1970) II. 91 Took up Mr. Hater and his wife..I find her to be a very pretty modest black woman.
1715 tr. Thomas à Kempis Christian's Exercise vii. 13 The Fair, the Black, the Learned, the Unlearned, do all pass away.
1749 J. Cleland Mem. Woman of Pleasure I. 150 He might pass for what is commonly called a comely black man, with an air of distinction natural to his birth and condition.
1815 Hist. Univ. Cambr. I. 144 The portrait in the Master's lodge represents him as a handsome black man.
1894 J. Jacobs More Celtic Fairy Tales xxxix. 152 You black, swarthy villain of a smith.
1917 A. Cahan Rise of David Levinsky i. ii. 8 The bookbinder had a red-haired little girl whom I hated like poison. Red Esther we called her, to distinguish her from a Black Esther, whose home was on the same yard.
2001 G. Ryman Lust (2003) 74 He was not at all bad-looking, what Michael called a black Celt: slightly sallow skin, a heavy beard and black eyes.
b. Wearing black clothing, armour, etc.Recorded earliest in Black Monk n. See also Black Friar n.
c1300 St. Dunstan (Laud) l. 42 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 20 (MED), A fair Abbeye he let þare a-rere..Of blake Monekes.
c1325 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 8921 (MED), Þe priorye of seint Iames..He rerde of blake monekes.
a1400 (▸c1300) Northern Homily: Monk returns from Death (Coll. Phys.) in Middle Eng. Dict. at Monk, A Blak munk of an abbaye Was enfermer of all.
c1440 (▸?a1400) Sir Perceval (1930) l. 50 (MED), Wolde he none forsake, The Rede Knyghte ne the Blake.
a1500 (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) viii. l. 679 Þe blak ordour Iacobitis, And þe qwhit Carmelitis.
1563 T. Becon Reliques of Rome (rev. ed.) f. 68v, Pope Honorius the thyrd by his bull honourably admitted the blacke order of the blacke fryers, In the yeare of oure Lorde. 1220.
c1626 H. Bisset Rolment Courtis (1922) II. 118 The ordoure of blak monkis called Sanct Benedictis ordoure.
a1676 S. Gunton Hist. Church Peterburgh (1686) 321 All the Monks of the black Order held a General Chapter at Northampton.
1750 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 73 Clement..retained only 200 horse and 2000 foot of the black bands so called from their being clad in mourning.
1817 W. Pitt Topogr. Hist. Staffs. i. 233 The nuns themselves may be termed the Black Ladies. Their dress is entirely sable, with long thick black veils thrown over the right shoulder.
1877 L. P. Brockett Cross & Crescent 154 The black, or monastic clergy.
1919 H. F. Day Rider of King Log xxvi. 411 Along the narrow street two Black Sisters were passing on their way to the convent.
2000 C. E. Harline Burdens of Sister Margaret (rev. ed.) ii. xii. 153 The Black Sisters of Leuven..didn't even read aloud, but each sister read quietly to herself.
c. Cards. Designating or relating to a card from the suits of spades or clubs. Cf. red adj. 15.
1615 J. Swetnam Arraignm. Women iii. 61 She will make Clubs trumpe, when thou hast neuer a blacke card in thy hand.
1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode ii. i. 20 She loves nothing So well as a black Ace.
1714 Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) iii. 23 The Club's black Tyrant first her Victim dy'd.
1770 Borella Court & Country Confectioner 208 The two black aces are always trumps in any suit.
1836 H. Smith Tin Trumpet II. 16 Fortune always made clubs or spades trumps, when he had not a single black card in his hand.
1860 ‘Perseverance’ Patience 9 Remembering to place a black 3 upon a red 3, a red 6 upon a black 6.
1953 A. Christie Pocket Full of Rye viii. 52 Miss Ramsbottom continued with her patience... ‘Red seven on black eight. Now I can move up the King.’
2004 M. Clark Plain Heathen Mischief (2005) 103 Edmund had a black ace and a ten of diamonds in front of him.
d. [After Narragansett suck- black (probably pronounced /sək-/ ) in Suckáuhock black wampum beads, nausakésachick black ones (compare quot. 16432), and in other words relating to wampum.] In colonial North America: of or designating wampum beads of a (dark) purple colour. Nowhist. Cf. wampum n.As a unit of exchange, black wampum (made from quahog shell) was generally held to be twice as valuable as white wampum.
[1643 R. Williams Key into Lang. Amer. xxiv. 144 Their owne [money] is of two sorts: one white... The second is black, inclining to blew, which is made of the shell of a fish.]
1643 R. Williams Key into Lang. Amer. xxiv. 144 Suckáuhock, nausakésachick, The blacke money.
1727 C. Cadwallader Hist. Five Indian Nations i. 47 We give you this Belt of Black Wampum (thirteen deep) to wipe away your Tears.
1868 B. J. Lossing Pict. Hist. U.S. Hist. 13 Wampum..are about half an inch long, generally disposed in alternate layer of white and bluish black, and valued..at about two cents for three of the black beads, or six of the white.
1928 Boys' Life June 40/3 The black wampum corresponded with our gold money; it was twice as valuable as the white wampum.
2000 S. M. Gustafson Eloquence is Power 84 Beads made from the shells of the whelk and the quahog clam—respectively, white and black (actually purple) wampum.
e. Of coffee (and occas. tea): served without milk or cream.Recorded earliest in black coffee n. at Special uses 5a.
1796 J. Owen Trav. Europe II. 529 Black coffee, as it is called, or coffee without milk, is the general drink.
1870 A. L. Wister tr. W. von Hillern Only Girl xi. 326 Ernestine, it is not good for you to drink your coffee black. It excites your nerves.
1914 H. Kinne & A. M. Cooley Foods & Househ. Managem. v. 85 Coffee is served ‘black’, or with cream, milk, or evaporated milk and sugar.
1985 L. Lochhead True Confessions 19 Back in my bedsit, I spooned bitter instant into my..mug..and sighed. I guessed I'd just have to swallow it strong and hot and black and bitter, I'd run clean out of Marvel.
1992 R. MacNeil Burden of Desire i. 79 They drank their tea black and took a thermos of it in the car.
2005 L. Bagshawe Tuesday's Child xv. 331 We go into the coffee shop and I order two black grandes.
f. Designating a ski run or trail suitable only for advanced users, marked with a black symbol (cf. black diamond n. 3) and represented on a map in black. Cf. blue adj. 13.
1973 Chicago Tribune 25 Feb. iv. 18/5 Slopes marked red correspond to expert runs in the United States, and the black runs, well..good luck!
1986 Skiing Today Winter 57/2 Many resorts have to invent black runs to appeal to good skiers.
2001 C. Gill & D. Watts Where to ski & Snowboard 108 There are plenty of red trails that would be black in many other resorts.
3. Also with capital initial.
a. Denoting a member of any dark-skinned group of peoples, esp. a person of sub-Saharan African or Australian Aboriginal origin or descent.The term black is also often applied to persons of mixed black and other ancestry. In various places at various times it has been used in a broader sense of any person who is not readily classifiable as white.
As the preferred designation esp. of North Americans of African origin, black gained acceptance in the late 1960s, rapidly replacing Negro (see note at Negro n. 1) and coloured. Since then it has been used as a self-designation affirming a distinct ethnic and cultural identity. Terms such as African-American and Afro-Caribbean which gained popularity somewhat later are often considered more positive since they avoid reference to skin colour and any of the possible negative associations of black (see for instance the figurative uses at A. II.). However, though widely used, these have not yet displaced black.
The capitalized form can have connotations of either respect or disrespect depending on the context and writer, and for this reason is sometimes avoided.
In quot. OE referring to demons who assume the form of Ethiopians and so perhaps implying an allusion to sense A. 10.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xxxiii. 286 Iudas se apostol cwæð ealswa to þæs monan anlicnysse and ðærrihte eodon ut on ealles ðæs folces gesihðe twegen blace silhearwan [L. ethiopes nigri] of ðam anlicnyssum.
?c1225 (▸?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 173 Blac as an blamon.
▸c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 1008 (MED), With hem com mani chanbioun Mani with ladde, blac and brown.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 2785 Among þe Sarsynz blake.
c1450 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 30 (MED), Summe men sayon þat y am blac.
▸?a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) 113 Of ane blak [lady] I will indytt.
1553 R. Eden tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India sig. Biiij, The bodyes of men begin to waxe blacke and to be scorched.
1667 S. Pepys Diary 27 Jan. (1974) VIII. 33 Her little black boy came by him.
1782 India Gaz. 30 Mar., The black officers..were drummed out of the cantonments.
1842 J. C. Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 24 Forrest says the Pappua Caffres are as black as the Caffres of Africa.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 141 The ‘old Ab’ was manned by one black boy, sixty years old.
1889 Harper's Mag. July 226/1 State laws forbidding the education of the black people had just been repealed, and the white people paid nearly all the taxes that supported schools open to both races.
1921 K. S. Prichard Black Opal 105 He had worked half a million..acres..in the days before runs were fenced, with only a few black shepherds and one white man.
1938 Z. N. Hurston Tell my Horse i. 18 When I used the word black I mean in the American sense where anyone who has any colored blood at all, no matter how white the appearance, speaks of himself as black.
1982 M. Mzamane Children of Soweto 6 In our street dialect, called tsotsi-taal, the lingua franca of black youth in South Africa..we violated every known grammatical construction.
1990 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 14 July 5 A private high school..staffed by black teachers and offering Aboriginal children the chance to gain a secondary education focused predominantly on Aboriginal studies.
2001 Times 24 Apr. (Law section) 7/6 The case of the black teenager who was stabbed to death in South London by a racist gang.
b. Of or relating to black people, their history, politics, culture, etc.
a1652 R. Brome Eng. Moor iv. v. 65 in Five New Playes (1659) , Tis no better then a Prodegy To have white children in a black countrey.
1726 T. Salmon Mod. Hist. (new ed.) III. 9 Adjoining to the White Town, stands a much larger, called the Black Town, where the Portuguese, Indians, Armenians, and a great variety of other People inhabit.
1852 T. Hughes in J. Ludlow's Hist. U.S. 342 The ‘black law’, by which coloured people were excluded from the territory.
1885 R. L. Stevenson & F. Stevenson Dynamiter 152 The black blood that I now knew to circulate in my veins.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South iii. ii. 318 There were those segregated black slums which honeycombed every Southern town.
1969 Elem. Eng. 46 609/1 The speech studied was primarily that of Negro students; the list which follows is composed solely of deviations appearing in black speech.
1975 Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) 19 June 3 The employment of teachers in active sympathy with Black aspirations was a prerequisite for the Africanisation of curricula at the Black universities.
1989 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 25 Feb. 121, I like to drink in a black pub... In a white pub, you get looks and stares.
1992 Jet 2 Nov. Why are more and more White stars embracing Black music?
2007 Independent 25 Apr. 3/2 Rap music..was a powerful, even revolutionary new medium of expression born of the frustrations and deprivations of the black urban experience.
4. Dark, sombre, dusky, gloomy.
a. Of deep water, clouds, the clouded sky, etc.: reflecting or transmitting little light.Quot. OE has alternatively been explained as showing blake adj.; cf. etymological note.
eOE Bounds (Sawyer 528) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1887) II. 585 Of þam broce andlang streames on þone blæcpol.
OE Andreas 1262 Land wæron freorig cealdum cylegicelum, clang wæteres þrym ofer eastreamas, is brycgade blæce brimrade.
a1325 (▸c1280) Southern Passion (Pepys 2344) l. 1547 (MED), Þe sonne was blak; hit was eclyps.
?c1400 (▸c1380) Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) v. met. ii. l. 4432 Þe nyȝt ne wiþstondeþ nat to hym [sc. God] by þe blake cloudes.
a1425 (▸?c1350) Ywain & Gawain l. 369 Þe weder wex þan wonder blak.
a1450 Revelation of Purgatory (Longleat) (1985) l. 304 Þay drew hyr in-to a grete blake watyr, and þat semed as cold as eny yse.
a1500 (▸?a1400) Morte Arthur l. 3181 (MED), A blake water ther vndyr hym he see.
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) iii. iii. l. 86 A watry clowd, blak and dyrk.
1626 Bacon Sylua Syluarum §874 Water of the Sea..looketh Blacker when it is moved, and Whiter when it resteth.
1646 G. Buck Hist. Life Richard III iii. 84 The young Princes were imbarqued in a Ship at Tower wharfe, and conveyed..to Sea, so cast into the Blacke deeps.
1781 T. Pasley Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Private Sea Jrnls. (1931) 199 In place of the fine Weather..it..looked dreadfully Black.
1819 Byron Don Juan: Canto I lxxiii. 39 The blackest sky Foretells the heaviest tempest.
1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast x, The rain fell fast, and it grew black.
1853 Putnam's Monthly Mag. Oct. 437/1 Here comes the fish, shooting up from the black depths of the river, like a meteor in a winter's night.
1949 E. Goudge Gentian Hill iii. iv. 367 The clouds were black and heavy, edged here and there with livid light.
1998 B. Bainbridge Master Georgie (1999) ii. 59 Above the fields, black clouds tumbled through a sky white and glittery as ice.
b. Of a time of day or year, a shadow, etc.: enveloped in darkness.
[OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) xxxix. 522 Swa swa se beorhta dæig todræfð þa dymlican þeostru þære sweartan nihte.]
▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. l. 1167 The blake wynter nyht.
a1425 (▸?a1400) Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 5356 The blak shadowes.
a1450 (▸?1420) Lydgate Temple of Glas (Tanner) l. 330 (MED), O ladi Venus, modir of Cupide..O blisful sterre..Cheif recounford after þe blak nyȝt.
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest iii. f. 69, Lurking or liuing in darke places and black shadowes.
a1616 Shakespeare King John (1623) v. vi. 18 Heere walke I, in the black brow of night.
1637 Milton Comus 61 In thick shelter of black shades imbower'd.
1790 R. Burns Tam o' Shanter in Poems & Songs (1968) II. 559 That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane.
1883 J. Parker Apostolic Life II. 168 Storms howling down the black chimney in the blacker night.
1906 E. Holden Country Diary Edwardian Lady (1977) 1 The blackest month of all the year Is the month of Janiveer.
1926 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 16/3 A single electric bulb burned over the white-washed entrance of a cavern that soon lost itself in black subterranean shadows.
2008 S. Armitage Gig (2009) 147 In upstate Huddersfield it was a black, blustery night, slashing with rain.
5. Deeply stained with dirt; soiled, filthy, begrimed.
▸c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 555 (MED), In a poke ful and blac, Sone he caste him on his bac.
c1450 (▸c1380) Chaucer House of Fame (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 1637 But he [sc. Eolus] Toke out hys blake trumpe of bras That fouler than the deuel was.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) ci. sig. D.ivv/1, Brysebar whan he sawe his owne handes soo foule and black it abhorred him.
1595 A. Fletcher Certaine Similies 84 Some one..taketh vp a blacke cole, which he turneth and tumbleth in his hands, till it foule and make blacke his fingers.
1602 R. Marbecke Def. Tabacco viii. sig. H4v, Foule blacke, quarrie, scorched hands.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 58 Their houses are all blacke with the smoak of this rosen.
1726 Pope tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxii. 439 On heaps of death the stern Ulysses stood, All black with dust and cover'd thick with blood.
1789 I. Munro Narr. Mil. Operat. iii. 20 The officers' rooms, the walls of which were black with dirt, had been for some time used as a granary.
1801 M. Nugent Jrnl. 31 July (1839) I. 25, I wish Lord B. would wash his hands, and use a nail-brush, for the black edges of his hands really make me sick.
1873 H. Cullwick Diaries (1984) 75 My hands was quite black & my face & arms grimed.
1958 M. R. B. Shaw tr. Stendhal Charterhouse of Parma vi. 124 The doors of her drawing-room were black with dirt from her footmen's fingers.
1999 C. Thubron In Siberia (2000) i. 14, I gaped at his features, then at his scarred hands, their nails black and worn to the quick.
6. In the names of artificial flies used in fly-fishing.
1496 Treat. Fysshynge wyth Angle in Bk. St. Albans (rev. ed.) sig. i.iiiv, The blacke louper, the body of blacke wull & lappyd abowte wyth the herle of ye pecok tayle.
a1589 L. Mascall Bk. Fishing (1590) 17 The blacke Fly or lowper, (in May) the body is made of blacke wooll.
1655 I. Walton Compl. Angler (ed. 2) v. 145 There are twelve Kinds of Artificial made Flies to Angle with upon the top of the water... The sixth is, the black-fly.., the body made of black-wool and lapt about with the herle of a Peacocks tail.
1766 R. Bowlker Universal Angler 73 The Bleak..may be taken with a very small, fine, artificial black gnat.
1799 tr. Laboratory (ed. 6) II. x. 311 Black-midge, or gnat. Dubbing, of the down of a mole.
1837 J. Kirkbride Northern Angler 57 The Black Spinner..has acquired a high reputation, both as a lake and a river-fly.
1861 H. Wade Halcyon vii. 96 Large fish have been taken, especially with the black midge, the smallest of our artificial flies.
1923 Daily Mail 11 Aug. 7 The Lea should yield some good specimens of these fish to the black gnat.
1990 D. Hughes Tactics for Trout ii. vii. 156 Any fly from a Black Woolly Worm to a Bitch Creek Nymph will turn a trout's head when salmon fly nymphs are on the march across the bottom.
7. Music. a. In musical notation.
(a) Early Music. Written in black rather than red (see red adj. 14).Freq. used in collocation with full (denoting a symbol with a solid head) and void (denoting a symbol with an unfilled or open head), the latter typically having half the time value of the former, the reverse relation to that described in sense A. 7a(b).
[1504 W. Cornysh Tretyse bytwene Enformacione & Musyke in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1908) 120 424 In musyke I haue lernyde iiij colours, as thys: blake, fulle blake, voyde, & in lyke wyse, rede.]
a1540 J. Tucke in R. Woodley John Tucke (1993) 68 The blake long contenyȝth as much as þe rede and halfe as much more.
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke Annot. sig. ¶4, If a white note (which they called black voide) happened amongste blacke full, it was diminished of halfe the value.
1776 J. Hawkins Gen. Hist. Music II. ii. v. 180 This kind of alteration in the value by a change in the colour of notes..is mentioned by most authors, who when they speak of the diversity of colours mention black full and black void, and red full and red void.
1880 W. S. Rockstro in G. Grove Dict. Music II. 471/1 About the year 1370 both the black and red forms gradually fell into disuse.
1989 A. E. Planchart in H. M. Brown & S. Sadie Performance Pract. before 1600 vii. 139 The most sophisticated use of coloration was that of English composers of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, who used simultaneously black full, black void, red full and red void notation.
(b) Of a note: having a solid or filled head, rather than an open one, signifying, in the case of the crotchet (and sometimes smaller values) a note of half the time value of its open equivalent. Sometimes also, in certain contexts: designating such a note signifying a time value bearing some other proportional relation to notes of standard value. Cf. open adj. 14b, white note n. (a) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1614 T. Ravenscroft Briefe Disc. 13 The Externall Signes are those which are set, at the beginning of Songs, and are the Characters of the Degrees, for the Diminishing of the White and Blacke Notes.
1658 J. Playford Breif Introd. Skill Musick i. 29 This swift Triple Time is many times prick'd in Black Notes, which Black Note..is of one and the same Measure with the Minim.
1782 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. 303 Notes in a lozenge form..whether the heads were full or open, were at first called Minims; but when a still quicker note was thought necessary, the white or open notes only had that title, and the black were..by the English [called] Crotchets.
1841 J. F. Warner Dict. Musical Terms p. iii/2 in tr. G. Weber Gen. Music Teacher, The abbreviations..consist for the most part in the use of..strokes which are drawn through the stems of the filled or black notes.
1923 J. Pulver Dict. O.E. Music & Musical Instruments 131 It was first written as a black note, and later as an open one with a tail on the right side.
1974 G. Read Mus. Notation v. 63 The note-head..is somewhat oval in shape, and is either open (or ‘white’..) or closed (‘black’..).
1999 Times (Nexis) 14 Jan., The link between the eye and ear starts with the very notation of music, its patterns of symbols and staves, black notes, white notes, rectangles, hairpins, half-circles with dots.
b. Designating a key on a piano or similar keyboard instrument which is coloured black rather than white; designating a note corresponding to such a key (typically a sharp or flat, although black is used for naturals on some, esp. older, instruments). Cf. white note n. (b) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1664 J. Birchensha tr. J. H. Alsted Templum Musicum iv. 22 So the black Keyes proceed with the white in the chromatic.
1811 Philos. Mag. July 47 In the profile, or longitudinal section of this instrument,..the following parts are the same as instruments now in use: A the finger-keys, B the raised black keys for flats or sharps, [etc.].
1828 W. L. Bowles Hermes Britannicus v. 75 Hence the well known idea that the black notes of a piano of themselves produce a kind of Scotch tune.
1920 P. Grainger Let. 1 Sept. in All-round Man (1994) 50 To make it interesting I'm going to feature my sustaining pedal action.., fist on black note chords, & glissando action.
1970 Galpin Soc. Jrnl. 23 148 A small anonymous English seventeenth-century spinet, with white naturals, black sharps.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 30 Nov. (Arts & Leisure section) 6/1 Irving Berlin..favored the ebonies over the ivories when he first started playing. His melodies found their home among the black keys.
8. Ceramics. Designating any of a number of different wares, either glazed or unglazed, having a black appearance.With reference to a variety of porcelain produced by Wedgwood, cf. basalt n. 2.
1736 R. Brookes tr. J.-B. Du Halde Gen. Hist. China II. 333 Black China-ware has..its Value and Beauty.
1763 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. II. 185 Hard Fire-Clay, of a duller whiter Colour, which they use for their black Wares.
1787 Wedgwood in L. Jewitt Wedgwoods (1865) 332 The black basaltes having the appearance of antique bronze..is excellently adapted for busts, sphynxes, small statues, etc.
1832 G. R. Porter Treat. Manuf. Porc. & Glass 17 Basaltes, or black ware..was a black porcelainous biscuit, having nearly the same properties as the natural stone.
1875 E. Meteyard Wedgwood Handbk. 391 Black Marble. A crystalline terra-cotta body. The colour is black shaded. Black painted. Single stems and flowers painted on black glazed ware... Black printed. Cream-ware printed over or under the glaze with patterns in black.
1885 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 618/2 Black Pottery is usually made from a very silicious or sandy clay.
1936 Discovery Sept. 289/1 This ‘black burnished’ pottery is identical with the black ware found in Mohenjodaro and not dissimilar to the black ware..of the earlier Chalcolithic periods of Baluchistan and Persia.
1993 Hobart Mercury (Nexis) 10 July, Ben Richardson's deep-lustred black wares certainly held one's attention, the onyx-like surfaces absolutely fascinating.
9. Marked or affected by burning; charred.
1800 Olio 2 Apr. 24/1 All sad is my Soul, when I view yon black Ruins Where once stood the cabin of Mary la More.
1820 J. Lawson Orient Harping i. 100 Patient brethren view the black remains Of their once peaceful settlement.
1863 A. Keary Janet's Home vii. 132, I had the audacity to find fault with the black toast and cold eggs Mrs. Morgan provided for us.
1944 F. E. Lewis Then & Now in Michigan vii. 68 Once a fire had passed, black stumps, black logs, and black ground was all that was left.
1998 J. M. Norris Designing Second Lang. Performance Assessments 111 A photographic representation of the particular offending food item(s) (clumped pasta, black steak, etc.).
2009 Brantford (Ont.) Expositor (Nexis) 16 Jan. b6 The fire..reduced the two-storey home to black timbers.
II. In figurative senses, chiefly with negative connotation.
10. Very evil or wicked; iniquitous; foul, hateful.
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) iii. i. 124 Hig [sc. the faithless] ne þicgeað þæs lambes flæsc þe soð Crist ys, ac þæs dracan þe wæs geseald þam blacan folce to mete, þæt ys þam synfullum.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1874) V. 229 Blake flokkes of Scottes [tetri Scotorum greges].
a1400 (▸c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 11540 (MED), Whan þou synnest, þou..makest þy soule black as pyk.
a1450 (▸1410) in J. Kail 26 Polit. Poems (1904) 34 (MED), This holy tyme..Burnysche bryȝt ȝoure soules blake.
1539 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Prouerbes f. liijv, Medle not wt naughtye felowes & such as haue blacke and diffamed maners.
1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha (1588) App., You wil haue a blacke soule..if you doe not the sooner forsake the Queene..and her heresies.
1609 J. Davies Holy Roode sig. G4, Red Seas, to drowne our blacke Egyptian sinnes.
1692 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 25 The portion of the blackest Criminals.
1713 S. Pycroft Brief Enq. Free-thinking 25 He has vented the blackest Calumnies.
1738 A. M'Aulay in Swift's Lett. clix, I shall never be guilty of such black ingratitude.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones VI. xvii. vii. 138 Concealing Facts of the blackest Die.
1839 P. J. Bailey Festus 71 Die with the black lie flapping on your lips.
1865 H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons III. xv. 156 The man..could still feel terrified and abashed at the contrast between his own black soul and the sacred purity of the child before him.
1920 Sandusky (Ohio) Reg. 5 Feb. 4/2 To sneer at and belittle America's vastly important part in the winning of it [sc. the war] is proof either of a weirdly short memory or a heart full of black ingratitude.
1999 J. Butler Ethics of Health Care Rationing ii. 55 Deliberately to put the life of a patient at risk because of a lust for his wife is among the blackest crimes in the professional book.
11.
a. Of a point or period of time: characterized by disaster or despair; unhappy, calamitous.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 245 Þe feste of þilke dayes is i-cleped Quinquatria, þat is, þe fyue bl[a]k dayes, for þe sorwe and þe bitternesse þat þe Romayns mysspedde whan þe Frensche men and Hannibal byseged hem all aboute.
1568 J. Rowll Cursing l. 12 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) II. 277 Blak be þair hour.
1651 J. F. tr. H. C. Agrippa Three Bks. Occult Philos. iii. lxiii. 548 The ninth of July is a black day with them, because on that day the destructions of both the Temples happened.
1713 L. Milbourne Guilty Conscience makes Rebel 22 Great..was the Wickedness of these ungrateful Nations, in those Black Days of the great Rebellion.
1759 W. Mason Caractacus 16 That black hour, (May memory ever raze it from her records).
1829 G. Griffin Collegians I. vii. 153 O, wirra, Eily! this is the black day to your ould father.
1871 C. H. Spurgeon Metrop. Tabernacle Pulpit 282 Ah, there were brave days in those black periods, brave days when great hearts told out by dying how dear Christ was to them.
1906 Mother Earth Oct. 5 Even the revolutionists and anarchists of this country have added nothing that would serve to silhouette the personality and act of the man upon the background of those black days.
1956 S. H. Bell Erin's Orange Lily iii. 39, I remember listening to a journeyman fitter recalling that black time in the history of the Belfast working-class.
2003 Guardian 17 Nov. i. 15/1 It's more than a black day for this town, it's a stab in its heart.
b. Prefixed to the name of a day of the week to denote a specific past date associated with disaster, defeat, ruin, etc. In later use esp.: denoting a day of panic in the financial world, such as may be caused by a sudden fall in share prices.For more established uses of Black Friday, Monday, Saturday, Thursday, and Wednesday, see the main entries. Recorded earliest in Black Saturday n. 1.
1576 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. (1833) II. ii. 56 Quhen he and he went togidder to the blak Settirday..he drew him be the Kirk of Dalrye.
1644 D. Harcourt Clergies Lament. 11 The battell of Ballemony, which the English in regard of the fatability of the day, call Blacke Friday.
1757 T. Smollett Compl. Hist. Eng. III. v. vii. 49 This treachery the Scots ascribed to the instigation of Drury. It was denominated Drury's peace, or the black Saturday.
1851 Illustr. Austral. Mag. (Melbourne) July 26 The 6th of February last, which received..the ominous designation of ‘Black Thursday’, will be long remembered in Victoria for its intense heat and burning winds, and the extensive conflagrations that occurred over all the country.
1872 San Francisco Chron. 16 May 3/4 (heading) Black Wednesday. Extraordinary fall in the stock market. Hundreds ruined.
1930 Observer 16 Feb. 6/4 The shooting of British Intelligence Officers on Black Sunday.
1943 G. D. H. Cole John Burns 13 The events of Black Monday, as the day of the riots came to be called.
1988 Financial Times 14 Oct. 19/7 On Black Tuesday, October 20, when the Tokyo market fell by a record 3,836 points, the ministry acted swiftly, calling traders of the four brokers together.
1995 Guardian 1 May ii. 10/4 On Black Saturday, when it was not clear whether the Soviet Union would accept the naval quarantine of Cuba.., Dean Acheson told President Kennedy that the missiles would have to be knocked out.
12.
a. Having or demonstrating evil intent; malignant, deadly; sinister.
1547 J. Bale Lattre Examinacyon A. Askewe Pref. f. 9v, Their sowles they can not harme with all their popes blacke curses.
1565 T. Norton & T. Sackville Gorboduc iv. ii. sig. D.i, The Lawe of kind and trothe thus rent in twaine His hart on mischiefe set, and in his brest Blacke treason hid then.
1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. D6, Many a blacke curse haue they of the poore commons for their doing.
a1616 Shakespeare Henry V (1623) ii. iv. 56 That black Name, Edward, black Prince of Wales.
1634 W. Habington Castara ii. 74 The blacke edict of a tyrant grave.
1713 R. Steele in Guardian 1 Apr. 1/1 Think it Madness to be unprepared against that black Moment.
1758 H. Walpole Catal. Royal Authors (1759) I. 142 The throne..usurped by the Queen's black enemy, Philip.
1821 Byron Sardanapalus v. i. 149 That's a black augury!
1855 Graham's Mag. Dec. 507/2 Her enemies shall have sated their black desire for her blood.
1920 H. Titus Last Straw xxi. 196, I beg of you, ma'am, to..dissuade him from his black purpose, if not by an appeal to honor, then by an appeal to his shame.
1954 I. Berlin Hist. Inevitability vi. 63 [They] paint individuals or classes or societies as heroes and villains, wholly white or unimaginably black.
2005 S. Russe Beyond Pale i. 14 We are offering you the chance to leave behind the darkness, the black desires, the blood urges that torment you.
b. [Compare pièce noire n., film noir n.] Of comedy, a comic piece, etc.: presenting tragic or distressing situations in humorous terms; wry, ironic. Freq. in black comedy, black humour n. 2.
1961 Times 14 Oct. 12/6 Another festival choice is the Spanish Placido, a new film by Berlanga, described as ‘another excursion into black comedy’.
1965 Listener 11 Mar. 379/3 The whole form of ‘Berck-Plage’, a poem about a seaside funeral, is a most remarkable piece of black cinema.
1984 N.Y. Mag. 10 Dec. 84 (caption) A Scrooge at once sad and wicked, with a smile of black irony.
2004 Time Out 25 Aug. 138/1 A raucous, high voltage black comedy following the journalists ‘embedded’ with the US military in Iraq as they embarked on the Pentagon's prime time war.
13.
a. Designating something which indicates disgrace, undesirability, failure, liability to punishment, etc. (often involving or consisting in a black symbol). Cf. black book n. 2, blacklist n., black mark n.
?1550 J. Bale Apol. agaynste Papyst f. cxvi, He feared the blacke blotte of treason for maynteynynge monkery, whych hys prince had condempned afore.
1595 B. Barnes Divine Cent. Spirituall Sonnets iii. sig. A4v, Let mercie mittigate the large blacke bill Of my dead sinnes.
1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. xxix. 286 To punish by a note, which may be called, the black Bill.
1714 M. Hole Pract. Disc. Liturgy Church of Eng. I. xiv. 113 Shortly a black Bill of our most hidden Iniquities shall be publickly read before us.
1832 A. Picken Changeable Charlie in Athenaeum July 431/1 When mounted thus on the top of the black stool, he seemed so delighted.
1841 Dickens Barnaby Rudge viii. 281 Write Curzon down, Denounced..Put a black cross against the name of Curzon.
1870 Food Jrnl. 1 Dec. 584 A ‘black page’ is reserved for towns with an unsatisfactory bill of health or an excessive death-rate.
1920 Atlantic Monthly Feb. 183/1, I said I would be glad to play for them if it would n't be held against me and put down as a large black blot on my efficiency record.
2007 J. S. Corum Fighting War on Terror iii. 84 Although there are some black spots on the American record of fighting insurgencies..U.S. policy has historically eschewed extreme measures such as those applied by the Germans or Soviets.
b. [Short for blackleg n. 4.] Originally (of a person): that performs blackleg labour. In later use (of goods, a vessel, or work): not to be handled or undertaken by trade union members, esp. so as to express support for an industrial dispute elsewhere.
1911 L. St. C. Grondola Collar & Cuffs 100 None of these gentlemen here is blacklegs... Anyone wantin' to prove who's black let him step out here.
1917 Independent (N.Y.) 20 Oct. 120/2 The strikers notified the merchants that if they refused credit to any of their present customers they would be declared ‘black’.
1927 Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 12/2 The Waterside Workers' Federation to-day declared as ‘black’ the steamer Kakakiri.
1935 Economist 8 June 1302/2 [Work books] will facilitate the control of the labour market and the prevention of ‘double-earning’ and ‘black labour’.
1959 New Statesman 11 July 34/1 Meanwhile, as magazines and provincial papers progressively close down, tension is increasing in those offices where arrangements have been made to produce ‘black’ editions.
1963 Times 28 May 5/1 When supervisory staff took over maintenance and transport driving duties, all the firm's production men quickly classified their work as ‘black’ and walked out.
2005 N. Harding Staying Red iv. 81 At Canary Wharf..a fruit ship had been declared black so the owners had sent the ship to Oslo, but no docker would handle it there either.
c. Finance (chiefly Brit.). Designating unfavourable information about a person's financial status, esp. his or her credit record, held or passed on by a bank, finance house, etc. Cf. white adj. Additions.
1973 Times 18 Aug. 18/2 Records of successful transactions are termed ‘white’ information, and adverse entries ‘black’ information.
1989 Observer 26 Feb. 72/8 They [sc. banks] are releasing ‘black information’ to credit agencies about clients who have defaulted.
1993 Guardian 10 Nov. ii. 12/4 Some of this is ‘black’ data on credit requests and fraudsters, with the high-street banks refusing to provide the ‘white’ data of customers' everyday transactions, citing a duty of confidentiality.
1995 P. van Cayseele et al. in A. van Witteloostuijn Market Evol. viii. 130 Other countries have opted for a negative or ‘black’ credit register: all borrowers who defaulted in the past are recorded in the register.
2009 S. O'Connell Credit & Community iii. 112 Like other credit reference bureaux, it faced criticism for stockpiling black information rather than white data.
14.
a. Of an emotion, state of mind, etc.: full of gloom, melancholy, misery, or sadness; very depressed.
1562 A. Brooke tr. M. Bandello Tragicall Hist. Romeus & Iuliet f. 57v, His wordes haue chased straight out of her hart despayre, Her blacke and ougly dredfull thoughts by hope are waxen fayre.
1567 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure II. xi. f. 67v, He..that is ambicious in climbing vp the turning wheele, throwen downe beneth the brinke of aduerse lucke, whelmed in the ditche & pit of blacke despaire.
a1625 King James VI & I Lusus Regius (1901) 46 This claiey dregg..is blake melankolie.
1659 H. Hammond Paraphr. & Annot. Psalms (xlii. 9 Paraphr.) 222 What a black gloomy condition am I now in?
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 570 He had also very black fits of the spleen.
1807 J. Barlow Columbiad i. 22 The slow still march of black despair.
1856 H. Worsley Life M. Luther II. v. 98 If a fit of spiritual despondency came over him Kate charmed away the black mood by the solace of reading.
1921 Amer. Woman Jan. 8/4 The pounding of the wheels wove into his brain a sort of rhythm, and with the rhythm was born a great idea, the product of his mood of black wrath, and a twisted sense of humor.
1939 Life 11 Sept. 56/3 The future seemed hopeless and Göring was in black despair.
2007 S. Sartarelli tr. A. Camilleri Patience of Spider 206 He didn't feel like eating any more. A wave of black melancholy had come over him.
b. Of an appearance, situation, or prospect: foreboding, threatening; full of anger or hatred.
1604 B. Jonson His Pt. Royall Entertainem. sig. B3v, Now heauen auert an ill Of that blacke looke.
1681 G. Burnet Serm. before Aldermen City of London, Jan 30 18 What a black prospect have we of most terrible confusions to follow, on such a fatal blow.
1709 G. Stanhope Paraphr. IV. 190 When the Face of affairs looked blackest and no glimpse of Comfort appeared.
1832 H. Martineau For Each & All ii. 25 His countenance was black as night.
1865 J. Skelton Campaigner at Home xiii. 335 It looked very black for Nancy, for she could not swim.
1958 N. Fleischer 50 Years at Ringside i. iv. 22 The boxing game was being threatened by certain disgruntled politicians and blue law agitators, and things looked black for the sport.
2007 Observer (Nexis) 24 June 31 Nor are his prospects as black as many Labour people had been fearing and many Tories had been hoping.
c. to look black : to frown, to look angrily or threateningly (at, on, or upon a person).
1608 H. Clapham Errour Left Hand 58 The heauens looke black vpon thee. The aire drawes it selfe from thee. The earth trembles at the waight of such a Reprobate.
1699 J. Barry Reviving Cordial iv. 75 The very Face of Providence shall seem to Frown and look black on thee.
1790 M. Wollstonecraft tr. C. G. Salzmann Elem. Morality I. xiv. 104, I have offended my parents, and the strangers looked black on me.
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. vi. 120 My brother-in-law..looked rather black upon me.
1855 R. Browning Fra Lippo Lippi in Men & Women I. 42 The monks looked black.
1917 W. Riley Way of Winepress xxi. 173 Am I to be sworn at and looked black at because I give an order?
a1974 R. Roberts Ragged Schooling (1997) xviii. 198 ‘We'll have to strip the bleedin' thing down.’ He looked black at me.
2005 J. Neel Ticket to Ride vii. 106 Paul was looking black and she did not dare ignore him any longer.
15.
a. Designating a commercial institution, commerce, or work which contravenes economic regulations, often by using unofficial cash transactions to avoid taxation; (also) of or relating to illicit trading; bought or sold in this way. Cf. black economy n. (b) at Special uses 5a, black market n., black money n. 3.
1922 Fortn. Rev. July 66 Stock dealing in Russia has never ceased; before 1921 detection involved a violent death; but in the summer of that year ‘green’ and ‘black’ bourses flourished in every big city.
1937 S. Webb & B. Webb Soviet Communism (ed. 2) II. 1199 There was always in Moscow and Leningrad, Kharkov and Kiev, the so-called ‘Black Exchange’, where native speculators illegally offered to the tourist, for American dollars or British pound notes, five, ten or twenty times as many roubles as the State Bank would give.
1938 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Mar. 3/1 We're expected to buy ‘black’ rubles or bootleg rubles which are available..at a fraction of the standard rate. We used to get them in what we call the Black Bourse... It's..a name applied to the ‘bootleg’ circles; to channels through which we bought black rubles.
1942 Ann. Reg. 1941 175 Contravention of war economic decrees, e.g. black slaughtering, were frequently punished with death.
1946 Times 18 Apr. 5/6 There are some things—food bought ‘black’ and services—which are not to be had for Reichsmarks.
1977 Time 15 Aug. 13/1 Black labor acts as a shock absorber enabling Italy to survive economic crisis.
2008 Guardian 25 Mar. 9/4 The trade in ‘black landings’—where trawlers illicitly sold over-quota fish—has been eradicated.
b. Mil. (orig. and chiefly U.S.). Designating an operation, assignment, etc., which is secret or covert, esp. one conducted outside ordinary channels of command and accountability. Cf. black op n. at Special uses 5a.
?1945 Rep. Operations U.S. Army: 12th Army Group Publicity & Psychol. Warfare Section XIV. iv. vii. 206 Certain special demands were placed on the Intelligence Section in connection with the black operations carried out.
1967 J. H. Roberts February Plan II. i. 157 You are to consider the whole conversation black, the whole procedure black, you are to handle it all yourself.
1985 W. J. Boyne & S. L. Thompson Wild Blue 229 A black assignment is beyond Top Secret: it's done in complete secrecy with a budget that is not revealed to the public.
2004 Wall St. Jrnl. (Central ed.) 17 May a20/4 In the early Bush presidency there was a shortage of covert insertions into sovereign states..and insufficient funding for black operations.
B. n. 1. A black ink, dye, or pigment.
†a. Black ink or other writing fluid; (hence) black written characters. Cf. bleck n., blatch n. Obs.in the black: in writing.
black and white: see black and white n. 1a, 1b.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 184 Incaustum uel atramentum, blæc.
OE Wulfstan Canons of Edgar (Corpus Cambr.) (1972) ii. 2 We lærað þæt hi to ælcon sinoðe habban ælce geare..blæc and bocfel to heora gerædnessum.
c1330 (▸?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 2702 An old hore man it was bitake So we finden in þe blake.
a1400 (▸?c1300) Lay Folks Mass Bk. (Royal) (1879) l. 282 (MED), Knele þou doun & say þen þis þat next in blak wryten is.
1447 Acct. in Berks., Bucks. & Oxon. Archaeol. Jrnl. (1905) 11 56 The seconde folio begynnyng in blacke ‘Qui Venit’.
b. Any black substance, esp. one used for blacking; any of various black pigments, paints, dyes, or varnishes used esp. by artists or in industry; freq. with distinguishing word.Berlin, bone, Brunswick, ivory, lamp, Spanish black: see the first element.
In quot. OE in fig. context.
OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 411 [Ut] caccabatum furvę fuliginis atramentum exhorruit : befyled deorces, nigre, sotes blæc of scoc, wiþsoc.
c1300 (▸?c1225) King Horn (Cambr.) (1901) l. 1203 (MED), He wipede þat blake [i.e. coal dust or soot] of his swere.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 123v (MED), Thynges blacking heres..þat blacke [L. illud nigrum] þat is in þe middes of papauer rubeum mixte with oleo mirtino.
a1475 in J. O. Halliwell Early Eng. Misc. (1855) 75 (MED), To make a fyne blake, take a clene pece of brasse..and hold hit overe a brynynge candelle of roseyne, to the fyre have congeylyd blacke on the brase.
1477 Earl Rivers tr. Dictes or Sayengis Philosophhres (Caxton) (1877) lf. 63v, One of his neyghbours made dye his here in blak.
1581 Act 23 Eliz. ix. §3 Clothes..dyed with a galled and mathered Black.
1670 W. Simpson Hydrol. Ess. 75 Dyers in the making of their Blacks, use not Alom but Vitriol.
1735 J. Barrow Dict. Polygraphicum I. sig. E4v, There is a colour call'd cold Black or Jesuits Black, prepar'd of the same ingredients as the former, but without being first dyed blue.
1798 Weekly Mag. 26 May 114/2 The experiments succeeded more frequently and surely with the coarser, more unctuous, and heavier, like Russian painters' black.
1825 W. B. Stevenson Hist. Narr. Resid. S. Amer. I. v. 109 The black for dyeing is obtained from the expressed juice of the root.
1852 J. S. Bradley Housekeeper's Guide (1860) 126 Blacks require no preparation; but it is necessary to body them; that is, to fill up the pores of the wool, silk, or any other substance.
1903 F. H. Leeds & W. J. Atkinson Acetylene x. 233 Acetylene black has also been tried in calico printing, and has given far better results in tone and strength than other blacks.
1985 E. Kerridge Textile Manuf. in Early Mod. Eng. xii. 167 Common or Flanders blacks were really ultra-black blues and purples. True or Spanish black could only be made with copperas mixed with galls, and, optionally..steel flings or slip also.
2005 D. Markle & L. Vanover Ult. Guide to Painting from Photographs ii. 52 Lay a mound of Mars Black on your palette straight from the tube.
c. Any of various preparations used by shoemakers, tanners, curriers, etc., for dyeing or staining leather black. Cf. blacking n.1 2b, shoemaker's black n. at shoemaker n. Compounds 2b, blatch n.
1558 W. Ward tr. G. Ruscelli Secretes Alexis of Piemount v. f. 100, Take of the blacke that Curriers or tanners doo black their skins with, for you may haue much for moneye.
1568 T. Hill Arte Gardening (rev. ed.) iii. xxix. f. 104v, The Seedes also myxed with shomakers blacke, doth take away wartes.
1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi vi. 244 The seeds of Basil, put up into the nose, procure sneezing; and being mixed with shoemakers black, do take away warts, killing them to the very roots.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια 277 Shoomakers black with vineger.
1754 Dict. Art & Sci. I. 311/1 Currier's Black, a black made with gall-nuts, sour beer, and old iron, termed the first black. The second black, which gives the gloss to the leather, is composed of gall-nuts, copperas, and gum arabic.
1787 W. Hutton Courts of Requests 77 His shoes received their last tincture of black from the currier.
1897 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather (ed. 2) 623 In the making of ‘sig’ stains, blacks and pastes for leather, borax is the currier's friend.
1905 Leather Manufacturer June 97 The skins are now given a coat of good aniline black; chrome leather black, or tannin leather black, are suitable.
1998 J. W. Humphrey et al. tr. Pliny in Greek & Rom. Technol. ix. 386 The Greeks have made a connection between copper and shoemakers' black by their name for it; for they call it chalcanthon [copperflower].
2. Black fabric.
a. Black clothing, esp. that worn as a sign of mourning. Also in pl. (now Sc.) and occas. with the sense ‘black or dress trousers’.
c1225 (▸?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl. 34) (1940) l. 638 (MED), Nis ha [sc. Pride] nawt i claðes..þah hit beo merke þrof..oðer hwiles, ah under hwit oðer blac & ase wel under grei ase under grene.
a1425 (▸?a1400) Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 4756 And eke as wel by [read be] amourettes In mournyng blak as bright burnettes.
c1460 Ipomedon (Longleat) (1889) 356 (MED), They were both in blak.
a1500 Merchant & Son l. 145 in W. C. Hazlitt Remains Early Pop. Poetry Eng. (1864) I. 142 Fadur, why appere ye thus in black? ar not yowre synnys foryevyn?
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 259 Tenne moneths..was the full time they vsed to weare blackes for the death of their fathers.
1636 D. Featley Clavis Mystica xix. 247 Neither are all that weare blackes his mourners.
1641 R. Greville Disc. Nature Episcopacie i. iv. 17 Some to Ministers, as Cassockes, Gownes..Canonicall Coats, Blackes.
1699 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 557 The King..has ordered all his subjects to goe into black.
1728 J. Gay Beggar's Opera iii. vi. 45 If you have Blacks of any kind, brought in of late; Mantoes—Velvet Scarfs—Petticoats—Let it be what it will—I am your Chap—for all my Ladies are very fond of Mourning.
1748 S. Richardson Clarissa V. xlvi. 326 Whom dealtest thou with for thy blacks?
1792 S. Whyte Coll. Poems (ed. 2) 47 Our Players scarce saw me in my blacks array'd.
1837 Dickens Pickwick Papers xxxiii. 354 A gentleman in black..proceeded to call over the names of the jury.
1862 Thackeray Philip I. 174 My old blacks show the white seams so, that you must..rig me out with a new pair.
1904 Daily Chron. 3 May 6/4 The duchess was in black with diamanté wings in her hair.
1920 C. Murray In Country Places 15 But noo when Sunday mornin' comes I hearken for the bell, An' few set oot in runkled blacks mair eager than mysel'.
a1963 S. Plath Coll. Poems (1981) 170 A man in black with a Meinkampf look And a love of the rack and the screw.
1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together iv. 96 If he chucks me out now, I'm going to spend the day wearing black and weeping loudly.
b. In pl. Hangings of black cloth used in churches, etc., at funerals; funereal drapery. Also occas. in sing. and fig. Now rare.
1537 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1905) VI. 330 To ane pursyvant to pas till Dunde to charge the inhabitantis thairof to bring thare blakis to Edinburgh, for the Quenis tyrement.
1608 T. Middleton Mad World, my Masters ii. sig. Cv, Ile pay him agen when he dies, in so many blacks, Ile haue the Church hung round with a noble a yard.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues, Littre,..the blacke wherewith the vpper part of a Church is compassed, at the funerall of a great person.
1650 J. Tatham Ostella 85 (title) To a vertuous lady, on whom envy had thrown a scandal, for which she mourned, and hung her chamber with blacks.
1652 E. Benlowes Theophila i. 32 Her Heart is hung with Blacks, with Dust she cloyes Her golden Tresses.
1707 Poems on Affairs of State IV. 254 Dismal Blacks hung round the Universe, And Stars (like Tapers) burn'd upon his Herse.
1710 ‘J. Touchwood’ Quixote Redivivus 16 The Company of Upholders are not able to furnish Blacks enough for the Deceas'd.
1869 T. Baker Hist. Coll. St. John Evangelist I. 186 The old court and St Mary's church were hung with blacks, besides escutcheons and many papers of verses.
1997 J. Woodward Theatre of Death viii. 149 All four rooms were hung with blacks.
3. Black colour or hue; (as a count noun) a particular variety of black.
?c1225 (▸?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 206 Bi halde his blac & naut his hwit.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. viii. 1277 Þer ben seuene colours, þat strecche fro white toward blake.
a1450 (▸?1420) Lydgate Temple of Glas (Tanner) l. 1250 (MED), For white is whitter, if it be set bi blak, And swete is swettir eftir bitternes.
a1500 Foly of Fulys & Thewis of Wysmen l. 155 in R. Girvan Ratis Raving & Other Early Scots Poems (1939) 56 Thai luf nocht to mak of blak quhyt.
1578 J. Rolland Seuin Seages 82 [To] mak..blak of that was neuer blew.
1645 S. Rutherford Tryal & Triumph of Faith iv. 29 All his blacks are white.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iv. ii. 264 The Mind perceives, that White is not Black, That a Circle is not a Triangle, That Three are more than Two, and equal to One and Two.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl., It is all over of a fine gay red, only that the long-wing feathers are tipped with black at their extremities.
1792 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina (new ed.) Introd. p. xx, On the top of the abdomen was a round red spot or ocelle encircled with black.
1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 175 We must take black and white into our list, as colours with the painter though not with the optician.
1856 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters IV. 45 Veronese's general practice will be..to paint the pattern with one even black.
1924 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 11 Nov. 4/5 Thus we see..cranberry with black, black with pervenche and tortoise with mahogany.
1956 I. English Every Eye 96 The spiked greenery of conifers and rosemary scrub..turns to black when distance drains the colour away.
1994 Coin Collector Issue 8. 8 For over 167 years the Bank of England £5 note was a large uniface note printed in black on white.
4. The pupil of the eye; chiefly in black of the eye. Cf. white n.1 2. Now chiefly hist.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 189 Þese hauen in eueriche yȝe tweie blakkes.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. v. vii. 185 Þe blak of þe yȝe..settiþ in þe middel as a quene.
a1475 Dis. Hawk (Harl. 2340) f. 28 (MED), Yf An hauke be wele colowrde..þe blake of þe hye..must Acorde to þe sureyne.
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Eiijv, In the region of the blacke of the eye.
1565 J. Hall tr. Lanfranc Most Excellent Woorke Chirurg. iii. vi. 48 The Pupilla..is the blacke of the eye.
1616 Treat. Princ. Dis. Eyes in W. Bayley Two Treat. Preserv. Eie-sight (new ed.) vi. 47 When the white of the eye is so swollen vpon the blacke, so that a kinde thereof appeareth to hang forth, it is called Chemosis.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. viii. 53 As big as the black or sight of the eye.
1718 J. Chamberlayne tr. B. Nieuwentijdt Relig. Philosopher I. xii. 239 That black little Circle in the Membrane..commonly called, the Black or Apple of the Eye, becomes in a healthy Man smaller in a great Light.
1870 W. Wilson Bible Student's Guide (ed. 2) 17/2 Schultens supposes it has reference to the little image of a man that is seen in the black of the eye.
1911 P. Radin tr. L. Ginzberg Legends of Jews III. 217 You have the white of the eye and the black of the eye, and it is by means of this dark part of the eye that you are enabled to see.
1998 R. S. Jampel in M. L. Kwitko & C. D. Kelman Hist. Mod. Cataract Surg. 20/1 A needle with a sharp point, but not too slender, is thrust in a straight direction between the black of the eye and the external angle until it reaches the center of the cataract.
†5. A black creature. Obs. rare.The precise nature of the creature (a form assumed by the Devil) is unclear in the quot., although it is identified as a crow in the French.
[It is perhaps possible that this may show a different word, an otherwise unattested variant of bat n.1: compare forms and discussion at that entry.]
a1400 (▸c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 11863 Come fleyng oute, at here mouþe a blak [Fr. cornaille], Ryȝt as she þe wurde spak... Þat yche blak, y dar wel telle þat hyt was a fende of helle.
6. Italian Hist.
a. A member or supporter of the Neri, a political faction within the pro-papal Guelph party which was opposed to the Bianchi (the Whites, who later allied themselves with the pro-imperial Ghibelline party), in a feud which began in Pistoia at the end of the 13th cent. and later spread to Florence.
?1585 E. Aggas tr. E. de L'Allouette Catholicke Apologie ii. f. 83, He was declared..a perturber of the peace of the Church, as hauing molested all Italy, with the factions of the Whites, and the Blackes.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 474 The Donats hauing taken vpon them the protection of the Blacke, and the Cerchi of the White; Florence was wholy diuided into white & Blacke.
1680 C. Ness Compl. Church-hist. 428 The Guelphs..and the Gibellines,..the Black and the White (as those Two Factions were called).
1762 Mod. Part Universal Hist. XXXVI. iv. 51 Florence, in a short time, became as much divided between the Whites and the Blacks as Pistoia had been before.
1785 H. Boyd Hist. Ess. in tr. Dante Inferno I. 159 As both the whites and the blacks were only branches of the Guelfs, or old papal faction, Charles was honourably received by all.
1802 C. Wilmot Irish Peer on Continent (1920) 134 The blacks and the whites form'd opposite parties which totally disorganized the Republick.
1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 811/2 A quarrel had arisen in Pistoia between the two branches of the Cancellieri,—the Bianchi and Neri, the Whites and the Blacks. The quarrel spread to Florence, the Donati took the side of the Blacks, and Cerchi of the Whites.
1902 Academy 11 Oct. 390/1 Were you a White and for the people, or a Black and for the nobles?
1989 B. G. Harrison Ital. Days iii. 148 The victorious Guelphs split into two parties: the Whites, who sought to maintain the integrity and independence of the Republic, and the Blacks.
b. In Italy following unification: a supporter of the Vatican as opponents of the Italian monarchy; an advocate of the restitution to the Pope of sovereignty over territories formerly controlled by him. Now rare.In quot. 1861: a supporter of the monarchical party in the former Bourbon kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.
1861 John Bull 12 Jan. 19/1 At Naples and in Sicily parties will..be divided between the ‘Reds’ and the ‘Blacks’, the Mazzinians and the Bourbonists.
1875 John Bull 10 Apr. 235/2 The ‘Blacks’ and the Irreconcilables act wisely in their generation in avoiding the presence of the Princess Margaret of Savoy, for she is a spell to enchant the most sour papalino.
1903 Daily Chron. 20 June 3/2 His position is that known in Italy as ‘White’, or constitutional, as compared with the clerical ‘Blacks’ and the republican ‘Reds’.
1909 Daily Chron. 29 Jan. 4/6 Most of the skaters are of the Vatican party... ‘Black’ is the local name.
1928 Harper's Mag. July 203/1 Socially, they refused to mingle with the ‘governmentals’, and it was the supreme social error to invite a ‘black’ and an ‘Italian’ to the same dinner party.
2005 J. F. Pollard Money & Rise of Mod. Papacy iii. 78 The ‘blacks’ of Rome were not the only Catholic aristocracy to move from traditional agricultural and land-holding activities to building speculation and other commercial activities.
7.
a. A horse of a black colour.
1593 G. Markham Disc. Horsmanshippe sig. Gv, Of colloures these be the best, Browne daple bayes, Bright bayes, Daple grayes, or White lyards, or blackes.
1607 G. Markham Cavelarice ii. i. 4 Your perfire Blacke, your redde Sorrell, and your darke Chesnutte, are much graced, if for a mittigation of their fiercer complexions, they bee accompanied with any white markes.
1735 Sportsman's Dict. II. at Pye-bald Horse, Thus there are pye-bald bays, pye-bald sorrels, and pye-bald blacks.
1774 R. Cumberland Note of Hand sig. A2, Long-tail and bob-tail, blacks and sprightly bays, And filthy duns and old flea-bitten greys.
1846 J. J. Hooper Taking Census in Some Adventures Simon Suggs i. 153 Mounting our old black, we determined to give the old soul a parting fire.
a1861 T. Winthrop John Brent (1883) iii. 26 The black was within the corral, pawing the ground.
1932 J. G. Neihardt Black Elk Speaks iii. 31 Behind me came the horsebacks four abreast—the blacks, the whites, the sorrels, and the buckskins.
1983 P. Gzowski Unbroken Line i. 15 Greys, bays, roans, browns, blacks, and chestnuts... they are all, by the morning light, potential stakes winners, champions, legends.
b. A former breed or variety of heavy draught horse developed in England, occurring in various colours, and ancestral to the Shire and the Clydesdale. More fully Old English black. Now hist.
1796 J. Lawrence Philos. & Pract. Treat. Horses I. vi. 295 The breeds of cart-horses, most in fashion upon our island, at present, are the heavy blacks of the Midland counties, the Suffolk punches, and those of Clydesdale in Northern Britain.
1823 Farmers Mag. Feb. 50 The Cleveland Bay..[is] a distinct race from the English blood horse, and equally distinct from the black or cart breed of the country.
1833 tr. C. Malte-Brun Universal Geogr. (new ed.) IX. 171 The English draught horses are held in great and merited repute; the three best sorts are the Cleveland bay, the Suffolk punch, and the Old English black or Lincolnshire cart horse.
1883 R. Moreton On Horse-breaking (ed. 2) 81 The Lincolnshire dray-horse is..the produce of a cross between the old English black and the Flemish horse.
1983 V. Russell Heavy Horses of World 98/1 The breeding of the best of the 'Blacks' was centred on the Fens and adjoining areas such as Leicestershire and Staffordshire, and extending into Derbyshire.
c. A domestic pigeon of a black variety. Now rare.
[1735 J. Moore Columbarium 39 This Pigeon [sc. the Dutch Tumbler] affords a great Variety of Colours in its Plumage, as blacks, blues, whites, reds, yellows, Duns, Silvers.]
1839 New Sporting Mag. June 378, I prefer a blue before any other, as I have generally found them hardier and swifter than the blacks and duns.
1855 Poultry Chron. 2 515/2 A pen of short-faced bald head Tumblers, Blues, Blacks,..of rare quality.
1925 F. Warner in A. H. Osman Pigeons xi. 67 Blacks must be black, not brown-black or grey-black, but jet-black, with iridescent sheen on every feather from head to tail.
8.
a. A black speck, esp. a small particle or flake of soot, a smut. Freq. in pl. Cf. bleck n. 2. Now chiefly hist.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 331 They also haue litle blackes in the middle of their teeth.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. ix. 401 The trifling world around us so fills the air with infection, as the London smoke does with blacks, that we can neither keep ourselves nor our furniture tolerably clean.
1783 Ainsworth's Thes. Linguæ Latinæ (new ed.) i. at bean, The black of a bean, Hilum.
c1816 Young Woman's Compan. 196 Let the blamange settle before you turn it into the forms, or the blacks will remain at the bottom.
1843 F. E. Paget Pageant 84 She carefully covered over..any articles that were likely to be damaged by blacks.
1862 E. M. Goulburn Thoughts Personal Relig. II. ii. vii. 28 The blacks of the world have settled down upon it.
1865 Dickens Our Mutual Friend II. iii. xvi. 149 If you see a black on my nose, tell me so.
1910 E. Davies State Purchase of Railways (Fabian Tract No. 150) 9 If one keeps the carriage window open, one gets covered with blacks and dust from the execrable small coal that appears to be the specialty of this line.
1939 A. Gould Viaduct ii. 27 Day and night will be filled with the sound of rushing trains, and the air will be fouled with the smoke and blacks of coal.
1989 C. Palliser Quincunx xxix. 146 When I commented on how dirty our clothes were, my mother explained that it was caused by the London blacks from the coal burning in the many chimneys.
b. A deposit of dirt on the body, esp. under the fingernails. Also fig.
1684 J. Reeve Spiritual Hymns upon Solomons Song 15 There is a Sun can wake the day, Out of this dismal Night: Then shall my black be washed off.
1700 J. Stevens tr. Cervantes Don Quixote II. xliii. 247, I love the little black of the Nail of my Soul, better than my whole Body.
1753 G. Washington Diary (1925) I. 49 You say this land belongs to you, but there is not the Black of my Nail yours.
1860 J. P. Robson Song of Solomon v. 16 Aw ha'e wesht baith maw feet frae the black.
1889 Brighouse News 14 Sept., He weant pairt wi' t'black afore his finger-nails.
1952 M. Harris City of Discontent ii. i. 148 He plugs the sink and runs the water..and washes the black from his arms and his neck and his face.
2006 W. H. Henderson Augusta Locke 250 They couldn't wash the black from their hands, not that they gave it much of an effort.
c. In pl. A dark-coloured fungus which attacks cereal crops, esp. one of the genus Ustilago; a smut (smut n. 1a). Now rare.
1844 Farmer's Mag. June 618/1 In England it is best known by the names of blacks, brand, or burnt-ear.
1883 Good Words 735 Who has not observed the smut, or blacks, among corn?
1920 Weekly News Let. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 23 June 10/1 They discovered, also, that this same fungus is responsible for part of the heavy spoilage of canned corn, known to commercial canners as ‘blacks’.
9. A member of any dark-skinned group of peoples, esp. a person of sub-Saharan African or Australian Aboriginal origin or descent.See note at sense A. 3a for comments on the usage of this sense. In some contexts the noun is now felt to carry disrespectful overtones and is therefore avoided in favour of a phrase using the adjective, as ‘a black person’, or an alternative such as ‘an African American’.
1614 G. Cokayne Let. 24 Apr. in W. Foster Lett. received by E. India Co. (1897) II. 31 The 5th ditto came in a ship from Mollacco with 28 Portugals and 36 Blacks.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes ix. xiii. §1. 1570 The mouth of the Riuer [Gambra], where dwell the Blackes, called Mandingos.
1682 J. Bunyan Holy War 5 This Gyant was King of the Blacks or Negroes.
1705 W. Nicolson Diary 31 Dec. in London Diaries (1985) 344 Of the Origine of all Nations, from Noah and his Sons..he shews that all the Blacks (of Africa and America) sprang from the same stock with our selves.
1749 R. Poole Jrnl. 17 Mar. in Beneficent Bee (1753) 300/1 Among the Blacks in this Country are some that are called Obeah Negroes.
1789 George, Prince of Wales Let. 30 May in Ld. Cornwallis Corr. (1859) II. 28 The Adaulet of Benares..now held by a Black named Alii Cann.
1805 Ann. Rev. 3 289 They exclude from suffrage the blacks and the paupers.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 129 The free black does not, in general, feel himself superior to the slave.
1929 ‘A. Russell’ Bungoona 7 If I were to remark that old Blossom was a bungoona nanta I'd really mean to convey to you, in the lingo of the blacks, that Bloss was a jolly good old horse.
1968 J. Mayet in Drum Sept. 8, I sometimes get the weird sensation that to the Whites who sit in their offices dreaming up new gimmicks to harass us and deciding where they should kick us out of or into next, we Blacks are not even people.
2004 New Yorker 3 May 105/1 Those blacks who remained poor and disempowered were viewed as having failed to take advantage of their definitionally equal status.
10. A person who is characterized by black clothing or some other part of his or her appearance.
†a. A mute or hired mourner at a funeral. Obs.
a1625 J. Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) iii. i. sig. E4v, I doe pray ye To give me leave to live a little longer, Ye stand before me like my blacks.
1632 P. Massinger & N. Field Fatall Dowry ii. sig. E, Lila. A good dumbe mourner. Aym A silent blacke.
1779 L. MacNally Apotheosis of Punch iii. 36 You dumb blacks with mournful face, Instantly quit this joyful place.
†b. A black-haired person. Obs. rare.
c1686 Young Mans Comf. in Roxburghe Ballads (1872) II. 558 The pleasant Blacks and modest Browns, their loving Husbands please.
1823 ‘B. Cornwall’ Flood of Thessaly 218, I Have quite forgotten to describe the lady: Her name was Fohi, a brunette, and nigh A black.
c. Any one of a band of poachers who operated with blackened faces. Cf. Black Act n. at Special uses 5a. Now hist. and rare.
1722 Act 9 Geo. I c. 22 Whereas several ill-designing and disorderly Persons have of late associated themselves under the name of Blacks.
1845 H. Martineau Forest & Game-law Tales II. ii. 23 There is an alarm of the Waltham Blacks coming down upon the forest,—just as bad as last season.
1974 Hist. Jrnl. 17 483 What had singled out the Blacks, both in Hampshire and Berkshire, had been their tendency to deal in threats and their acts of reprisal.
11. Chiefly with the. Darkness, esp. that of night.
1683 I. Walton Chalkhill's Thealma & Clearchus 19 Night-swaying Morpheus clothes the East in black.
1793 European Mag. & London Rev. May 389/1 Can we e'er hope to change the black of night, And fill the rayless hemisphere with light?
1865 Macmillan's Mag. Oct. 475/1 Pricking nervously her ears at every flaw or rustle,..then with a snort of challenge plunging into the black of the hollows.
1899 B. M. Dix Hugh Gwyeth x. 169 Hugh answered stoutly, and, turning from the fire, faced into the black of the night.
1945 R. J. Casey This is where I came In xv. 76 Beyond him another German lay prone, peering into the black through a pair of night glasses.
1995 A. Warner Morvern Callar (1996) 206 My ankle skited away under me and I jabbed out a hand into the black.
2004 Uncut Mar. 48/1 The ‘wind began to howl’ and so does Hendrix's fretboard, shooting skyward and disappearing into the black.
12. In various elliptical uses.
a. Chess and Draughts. The player using the black or coloured pieces. Cf. white n.1 21.
1750 ‘A. D. Philidor’ Chess Analysed 87 The black playeth at present this Knight at his Bishop's third Square.
1822 J. Cochrane Treat. Game of Chess 192 On the Black taking the queen's knight with his bishop, the White must not retake immediately.
1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 52/1 Black's fourth move was a very bad one.
1886 Jrnl. Indoor & Outdoor Amusements 17 Nov. 125/2 Black could draw now by continuing to check with the Rook.
1957 I. A. Horowitz How to win in Chess Endings 52 White's King must move, after which Black picks off White's Queen.
2004 Chess Jan. 38/3 White's Houdini-like escape is achieved by making such cunning use of his eccentric pawn-formation that Black cannot usefully queen his pawn.
b. Gambling. The black colour in roulette or rouge et noir. Cf. red n. 1c.
1793 Faro & Rouge et Noir 62 The pontes or punters who sit round the table may stake their money on red or black.
1836 Amer. Monthly Mag. Oct. 400 You see the people put money on the table in its different divisions, here to bet on the red, or there on the black.
1868 E. Yates Rock Ahead III. iii. v. 178 I've won a little on the red and black here and there.
1928 M. Carol How to play Roulette iv. 56 The even money chances [in the game of rouge et noir] are Rouge or Red, Noir or Black, Coleur [sic] and Inverse.
1950 L. H. Dawson Hoyle's Games Modernized (ed. 20) 291 The tailleur never mentions the words ‘Black’ or ‘Inverse’, but always says that Red wins or Red loses, and that the colour wins or the colour loses.
1975 Way to Play 279/1 If the opposite characteristic (eg black) comes up, the bet is lost.
2008 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Oct. 24/2 Let's say you are playing the roulette wheel and you hit five reds in a row. Should you stay with red because black is ‘due’?
c. Archery. A shot which hits the target in the black ring surrounding the inner white circle.
a1818 E. Hargrove Anecd. Archery (1845) (rev. ed.) 148 Most centre blacks.
1859 H. A. Ford Archery (ed. 2) xiv. 117 The following is a St. Leonard's round, at 60 yards:—28 golds, 37 reds, 7 blues, 3 blacks.
1882 Standard 31 Aug. 6/4 The Vice-President's Prize to ladies for most blacks.
1908 Archer's Reg. 1907–8 149 Miss Barker presented a prize for the most blacks, which was won by Miss Bigland.
1992 L. Wise Bow & Arrow 246 Ties shall be resolved in favor of the archer with the greatest total number of Golds, then Reds, then Blues, then Blacks.
d. A black postage stamp.Recorded earliest (and most frequently) in penny black n. at penny n. Compounds 2.
1863 Stamp Collector's Mag. 1 Nov. 159/2 Penny black, 10d.
1890 S. C. Skipton Auction Epitome 1889 28, 1d. black sheet of 240, used.
1907 Daily Chron. 12 Dec. 6/6 A 12d. black of Canada, 1851.
1936 R. Graves Antigua, Penny, Puce x. 149, I specialize in the archetype and grandmother of all stamps—the Penny Black of 1840.
1970 Times 31 Jan. (Sat. Review) p. v/2 (advt.) Over 250 lots of One Penny Blacks, incl. all Plates, many with matched 1d. Reds.
e. In Billiards, Snooker, and similar games: a black ball.
1866 G. F. Pardon Billiard Bk. xiii. 209 If he pocket the black in either of the corner-pockets, he forfeits six points.
1949 Punch 9 Nov. 519/1 It misses the pyramid altogether and then..bounces off the top cushion to deal the black a glancing blow.
1978 Guardian 7 Feb. 20/6 Fagan then rushed a simple black with a straightforward clearance of the colours in prospect.
1988 I. Morrison Billiards & Snooker 40/2 Maximum, the compiling of the maximum possible break..by potting fifteen reds, each followed by a black, and then all the colours in the correct sequence.
2001 M. Richler On Snooker vi. 52 Taylor potted the black.
f. Printing. A blemish on a printed sheet caused by some movable part of the printing apparatus rising to the height of the type.
1882 Print. Times 15 Feb. 36/1 Blacks is a term applied to any mark on a sheet made by pieces of furniture, catches, etc. rising to the level of the form.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 93/2 Black (Typog.), a blemish on a printed sheet caused by a space or lead which has risen to the height of type.
1963 W. C. Kenneison & A. J. B. Spilman Dict. Printing, Black, a blemish on a printed sheet caused by leads or spaces rising to type height.
g. Baseball. [In reference to the black border sometimes formerly used on the home plate.] The (inner or outer) edge of the strike zone.to paint the black : to pitch a ball to the inner or outer edge of the strike zone.
1962 J. Brosnan Pennant Race 37 It was right on the black. So I bitched a little... And he gives me the third strike a couple minutes later.
1979 S. Lyle & P. Golenbock Bronx Zoo 76 He throws a hundred miles an hour and he's painting the black.
1987 S. Fiffer How to watch Baseball viii. 174 There is some discussion among the Seattle players about whether his fastball..is going straight over the middle of the plate or ‘catching the black’—the outer border of the plate.
1994 T. Boswell Cracking Show v. v. 103 Fastball. Right in your kitchen, up and in. In your face. On the black. It's the big pitch of the at-bat, so it's perfect.
2006 G. Gmelch Inside Pitch iv. 83 On pitching... If a guy is painting the black on you consistently, you know that's what he is trying to do.
†13. slang. Short for blackleg n. 4. Cf. sense A. 13b. Obs.
1826 in K. Laybourn Brit. Trade Unionism (1991) 26 You need not care for Blacks or Scabs, Jackdaws or Yellows.
1859 E. T. Hurlstone & J. P. Norman Exchequer Rep. (1861) V. 30 He said to the men, If you dare work we shall consider you as blacks, and when we go in we shall strike against you.
1861 Sat. Rev. 20 July 59/2 The lists of ‘blacks’, and the victims of the picket system.
14. slang. Short for blackmail n. 1b. to put the black (on a person) : to blackmail.
1923 E. Wallace Missing Million xii. 95 I've been paying ‘black’ for years.
1924 E. Wallace Room 13 iii. 38 Are you trying to put the black on me?
1928 E. Wallace Gunner xxiii. 190 I've never known you put the black before.
1951 J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge iii. iii. 561 Got a lovely pub..and yet wants to start putting the black on people!
2005 P. McIntosh Nicholas Feast iv. 75 If you want to know who else he was putting the black on, you'll have to ask around yourself.
15. orig. Services' slang. [Probably short for black mark n.] A serious mistake or blunder, esp. in to put up a black : to make a blunder.
1939 Flight 26 Oct. 335/2 Last week's special black. The ex-civil pilot..who thought that the ripcord of his parachute was a carrying handle specially provided by the kind manufacturers.
1941 Eng. Digest Feb. 38/1 A glaring error is a ‘black’. ‘I have put up a black,’ they will say.
1943 Word Study Apr. 6/1 Far from committing the black they expected, she showed great heroism.
1946 G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead xi. 142 One day she put up a black... She had fried our salmon in batter.
1985 Times 2 May 11/8 Once again it looks as if Cobb may have ‘put up a black’.
2007 A. L. Kennedy Day 49 Nothing was settled beyond Johnnie Bastard Hanson getting his way and putting up a black for all of them.
16. colloq. (chiefly Brit.). In the names of mixed drinks of the type —— and black: blackcurrant cordial.
1969 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 12 Sept. 6/5 The gin and orange contained no gin, and the rum and black was only blackcurrant.
1989 J. Burchill in Sex & Sensibility (1992) 111 We've started to realize we had more fun fifteen years ago getting legless on Pernod and black at Shitshire's hottest nite-spot.
1995 Face Aug. 90/1 The lager 'n' black drinks promo was an inspired move.
2007 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 11 Feb. 34/4 My student horizon was limited to where my next cider and black was coming from.
Phrases
P1. In similative and comparative phrases.For more established phrases, as (as) black as coal, one's hat, night, pitch, etc., see the nouns.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Bodl.) 24 Muche deale blackre þen eauer eani blamon.
▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) viii. l. 2904 A Paire of Bedes blak as Sable Sche tok and heng my necke aboute.
c1400 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Tiber. D.vii) i. xlix, in R. Morris & W. W. Skeat Specim. Early Eng. (1884) II. 236 A ys blak as gemmes buþ.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) xviii. sig. Ciii, [The water] was blacker than smythy water.
1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. (new ed.) f. 4, But as the hearbe Moly hath a floure as white as snow, and a roote as black as inck.
1600 Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. ii. 358 With drooping fogge as blacke as Acheron.
1694 tr. F. Martens Voy. Spitzbergen 166 in Narbrough's Acct. Several Late Voy., He is not as black as Velvet, as the Whale is, but like a Tench.
1752 G. A. Stevens Distress upon Distress ii. 88 Now grizly Night, thy pitch'd Tarpaulin spread, Black as the sooty Chimney-sweeper's Sack.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 188 Its skin is blacker than that of an Otter..; ‘as black as a Mink’ being a proverbial expression in America.
1886 Cent. Mag. Feb. 522/1 Tall, well-knit Senegalese from Cape Verde, black as ebony, with intelligent, kindly eyes and long, straight, shapely noses.
1923 National Geographic Mag. Jan. 52/2 There one sees pale girls, with fevered eyes as black as a raven's wing.
1974 D. Goines Swamp Man xii. 170 It's goin' be blacker than a witch's heart in a few more minutes.
2005 S. Saadi Psychoraag 168 The foetid, poundin rhythm, black as fishes' bowels, that emerged from lakes deep within the jungle ki kokh of Madya Pradesh.
P2.
a. black and blae: = black and blue at Phrases 2b. Now Sc. and Eng. regional (north.).
c1325 in K. Böddeker Altengl. Dichtungen (1878) 199 (MED), Blody stremes ronne þe fro þat þi bodi wes blak ant blo.
a1400 (▸a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 8073 Four sarȝins..Blac and bla [Trin. Cambr. blak and blo] als led þai war.
a1500 (▸a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xxii. 275 Bett hym blak and bloo.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum, Beaten blacke and bloo, suggilatus.
1718 A. Ramsay Lucky Spence's Last Advice 3 That curst Correction-house, where aft Vild Hangy's Taz ye'r Riggins saft makes black and blae.
a1796 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 72 Aft hae made us black and blae.
1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 88 Sad wights! wi' ribs baith black and blae Were harlit hame.
1868 J. C. Atkinson Gloss. Cleveland Dial. 48 He's getten his bats: his feeace's black and bleea wi't.
1903 G. Cunningham Verse & Prose i. 20 A'bruised and bluidy, black and blae.
2003 E. R. Anderson Folk-Taxon. in Early Eng. v. 173 The Northern dialect form, black and blae, preserves the Norse loanword.
b. black and blue: (of the human body) discoloured by bruises caused by beating, pinching, etc. Freq. in to beat (a person) black and blue . Also occas. as n.: such bruising or beating.
1568 T. Hill Arte Gardening (rev. ed.) ii. xviii. f. 76v, Ye black & blew of a striepe.
1593 G. Peele Famous Chron. King Edward the First sig. F3, My pate adle, mine armes blacke and blue.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. 141 He basted our shoulders with Cudgell-deaw, making the dust flie out of our Coates, till he had beaten our bodies all blacke and blue.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. ii. 143 Flew To rescue Knight from black and blew.
1690 London Gaz. No. 2577/4, His right Eye black and blue with a Blow.
1718 29th May, or, Restoration 14 [He] hit him also against the Pommel of a Chair, whereby His Majesty's Eye is black and blue.
1833 T. Hood Happy New Year in Comic Ann. 86 He's come home black and blue from the cane.
1883 ‘M. Twain’ Life on Mississippi iii. 61 Some raftsmen would rawhide you until you were black and blue!
1904 Dietetic & Hygienic Gaz. Aug. 473/2 It would more quickly remove the black and blue of bruises and contusions than any other remedy.
1929 Travel Jan. 13/1 If I return home empty-handed, my wife will beat me black and blue.
1990 D. Bolger Journey Home (1991) i. 20 You know, twice he caught me and leathered me black and blue.
P3. to say black is a person's eye (also eyebrow, nail, etc.) : to find fault with or blame a person. Now rare.
a1450 (▸c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) l. 2823 (MED), The riche and myghty man, thogh he trespace, No man seith ones þat blak is his eye.
1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. eiiijv, They eate their belies full, Every man as moche as he wull, And none sayth blacke is his eye?
1589 ‘M. Marprelate’ Hay any Worke for Cooper 36 If you were my chaplains once, I trowe John Whitgift..durst not once say blacke to your eies.
1675 T. Brooks Golden Key 362 He knew that the Law could not say, black was his eye, and that the Judge upon the Bench, would pronounce him righteous.
1720 Vade-mec. Malt-Worms 11 None can say that black's his eyebrow to him.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. ix. iv. 337, I defy any Body to say black is my Eye.
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) II. 2 ‘Thou cannot say black's my nail’..Cui tu nihil dicas vitii. Ter.
1879 E. Waugh Chimney Corner 61, I kept a shop, an' was well-to-do; an' I had frinds high an' low, an' was respected; an' divul a one could say ‘black's your nail’ to me.
1934 P. O'Donnell On Edge of Stream 191 I'd like meself to..have the pleasure of knocking down the man who'd say black was the white of his eye.
P4. black in the face: purple in the face through strangulation, passion, or exertion. Freq. used hyperbolically. Cf. blue in the face at blue adj. andn. Phrases 4.
1607 E. Grimeston tr. S. Goulart Admirable & Memorable Hist. 2 She was so opprest with paine, as she grewe blacke in the Face, like one that had beene strangled.
1646 H. Mill 2nd Pt. Nights Search xix. 117 Spits ill language at the Moon, and looks Black in the face with pride.
1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote Pt. 1 iii. i. 25 He would swear till he was black in the Face; Dissemble six long hours by the Clock.
1717 T. Lewis Scourge No. 35. 292 The Embroider'd Bully upon the Stage you obseve amusing the Gaping Croud with Folly, Nonsense, and Noise, bawling till he is Black in the Face.
1789 J. Wolcot Poet. Epist. to falling Minister 121 Swore himself black..in the face.
1836 Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) v. 47 Mr. Winkle pulled..till he was black in the face.
1870 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 67 Though we should boast..till we were black in the face.
1920 G. B. McCutcheon West Wind Drift vi. 76 He might apologize until he was black in the face and still be unable to take back the words he had uttered.
1991 Herald Sun (Austral.) (Nexis) 15 Feb., The peacemongers can meet and march until they are black in the face.
P5. colloq. (now offensive). to work like a black : to work very hard. Cf. to work like a nigger at nigger n. and adj. Phrases 1.
1842 Northern Star (Leeds) 4 June 8/1, I have worked like a black to-day, and yet I am as fresh as a four-year old.
1870 E. S. Maine Among Strangers xiii. 107 ‘I can work like a black, Miss Beckett, when I have anything to work for,’ said Evan, proudly.
1928 H. Graham World's Workers 18 While his workmen toil like blacks, St. Bees evades the Super-Tax.
1957 Punch 19 June 775/3 He worked like a black (if that phrase is still permissible) to produce a guide to French literature.
1987 P. Thomas Welsher ii. i. 58 Bridie is as quiet as the proverbial church mouse and works like a black into the bargain!
2005 Aberdeen Evening Express (Nexis) 13 July 6, I have to say I was pretty disgusted when I heard him say: ‘I didn't come here to work like a black.’ Did he think he was being funny?
P6. to fade (also go) to black and variants.
a. Of stage lighting: to go out gradually, leaving the stage in darkness. Hence (of a film or television screen): to go gradually dark. Also in extended use.
1918 R. H. McLaughlin Eternal Magdalene iii. 87 (stage direct.) Lights fade to black.
1969 P. M. Jensen Cinema Fritz Lang vi. 167 A man's figure materialises out of the haze and the screen fades to black.
1980 Advertiser (Nexis) 18 Jan., The screen goes to black as the ‘snap’ of the trap springing shut is heard.
1992 L. Kramer in S. P. Scher Music & Text viii. 144 After the opening forte attack, the Urklang gradually fades to black.
1997 Amer. Theatre July–Aug. 21 The light brightens and brightens, and then the music ends. The lights fade to black.
2006 UMass Amherst Fall 51 He opposes those who argue that the city [of New Orleans], because of its geography, should simply fade to black.
b. To cause stage lighting to go out gradually; to cause a film or television screen to go dark. Freq. in imperative.
1947 B. Emery Singapore Spider in L. A. Sposa Television Primer of Production & Direct. 144 Thanks for looking and [Good night!] fade to black.
1960 Punch 5 Oct. 491/2 Roll final credits and fade to black.
1988 S. Gray How's that for telling 'Em, Fat Lady? ii. 65 We'll go down to black while the rest of the furniture is struck or replaced—in fact, a conventional set change requiring a lengthy pause.
2011 P. Meehan Horror Noir viii. 182 The final shot shows Marion's car..being dragged out of the mucky bog. Fade to black.
P7. orig. U.S. in the black [from the practice of recording credit items and balances in a ledger in black ink] : in profit; having a credit balance. Cf.in the red at red n. 16.
1923 Wall St. Jrnl. 2 Feb. 13 Carter, Macy is now making satisfactory profits. Amsinck is operating in the black.
1940 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 44 734 With but few exceptions American air carriers are..operating ‘in the black’.
1990 Independent on Sunday 11 Feb. (Review Suppl.) 33/4, A guarantee that I will receive other payments within a fortnight that will put me £600 in the black.
2006 R. Ash New Spend Less Revol. iii. iv. 80 You could even consider a part-time job for a short while to get you back in the black and feeling rich again.
P8. black is beautiful: a slogan, popularized in the 1960s, which affirms the beauty and value of being black, esp. black ethnicity and culture. Freq. attrib.The slogan is sometimes said to have been coined by John S. Rock in 1858 ( Liberator 12 Mar.). Rock's speech promotes the idea that blackness should be celebrated, but does not use the slogan itself.
[1927 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 8 Dec. 3/3 Marcus Garvey made black people proud of their race. In a world where black is despised he taught them that black is beautiful.]
1964 N.Y. Amsterdam News 23 May 10/3 Malcolm X says, ‘Black be proud, for black is beautiful.’
1965 Liberation (N.Y.) Sept. 25/1 Radical blacks turn inward to united fronts and to ‘black is beautiful’ stated as an ideological principle.
1967 Black Panther 20 July 24/3 The hangup is that they have tried to sweep ‘Black’ under the rug for all these years and can't stand us digging ‘Black is Beautiful’.
1971 Black Scholar Apr.–May 15/2 These prisons boast Soul Shows, Black is Beautiful days, and bongo sessions in the yard.
1973 A. Dundes Mother Wit 231 In ‘The Language of Soul’ we find an important reversal in attitude, a reversal which is..in harmony with the general ‘Black is Beautiful’ philosophy.
1983 Washington Post 22 Sept. dc 1/1, I remember how black was beautiful 10 years ago and have since been struck with how abruptly the Afro was cut short.
2004 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 33 308 ‘Black is beautiful’... was less about the attractiveness of a particular skin color than about the advancement of black consciousness and pride that was central to the civil rights movement.
P9. orig. U.S. black-on-black: designating violence or crime in which both perpetrator and victim are black; (more generally) that occurs between black people.
1968 Chicago Daily Defender 16 Mar. 11/7 The violence of black man stabbing black man, mugging black man stomping black man, raping black woman. Black on black. And a black crime against a black gets cancelled out in the mind of a white precinct commander.
1974 Black World May 20/1 In turn, Black-on-Black violence has increased along with the incidence of Black violence against whites.
1998 Gay Times Aug. 84/3 (advt.) Second Time Around... The sequel to the black-on-black gay love story The B-Boy Blues.
2005 Northern Territory News (Darwin) (Nexis) 22 Nov. (Entertainm. section) 25 The story takes place against a backdrop of black-on-black violence.
Special uses S1. Parasynthetic.Compare the instrumental compounds of the noun at Compounds 1. See also black-backed adj., black-faced adj., black-headed adj., black-tailed adj., black-winged adj., etc.
black-aproned adj.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. v. v. 255 Meanwhile, the faster, O ye black-aproned Smiths, smite; with strong arm and willing heart.
1914 Atlantic Monthly Aug. 215/1 Here, he delights to catch the postman at work, or to meet the little boys pouring out of school, black-aproned and bare-kneed.
2007 Toronto Life (Nexis) June 132 Vintage French posters, exposed brick and black-aproned servers create an elegant bistro feel.
black-banded n.
1773 J. R. Forster Resol. Jrnl. 24 Jan. (1982) II. 218, I saw the blackbanded Petrels.
1835 Parterre 2 203 The black-banded turban of a cadi.
1909 Proc. Geologists' Assoc. xxxii. 793 At the top of the Harlech series rest a curious set of dark blue or black banded shales.
2001 Trop. Fish Hobbyist Apr. 161/3 A color variant of the regular black-banded bee shrimp.
black-bearded adj.
1577 S. Batman Golden Bk. Leaden Goddes f. 9v, Satvrne was portracted with a hoare head, but black bearded, & feeble footed.
1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. M5, No black-bearded Vigil from thy doore Beats with a button'd-staffe the poore.
1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women xxxiv, in Poems (new ed.) 130 The stern blackbearded kings with wolfish eyes.
1881 O. Wilde Poems 107 Grim watchmen on their lofty seats..strained black-bearded throats across the dusky parapet.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. 90 A tall blackbearded figure..stumping round the corner of Elvery's elephant house.
2000 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 16 Nov. 10/1 A thick-set, black-bearded, phlegmatic man, always to be found in his office tapping away at a slimline laptop.
black-bodied adj.
1651 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 211, I inclosed in a glasse some great black-bodied Spiders with short legs.
1857 Times 12 Mar. 2/1 (advt.) Also a black-bodied Newfoundland Retriever Dog, two years old.
2001 BBC Wildlife Sept. 24/3 These species are effectively as inconspicuous as the black-bodied gulper eels and dragon fish.
black-coloured adj.
1528 T. Paynell tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano Regimen Sanitatis Salerni sig. F iv, Blacke colered wyne.
1779 Philos. Trans. 1778 (Royal Soc.) 68 796 On the back part of the iris, or rather the posterior part of the aqueous humour, it was only covered over with the black coloured pigment.
1866 P. H. Lawrence tr. B. von Cotta Rocks Classified ii. iv. 338 Pyroschist..is..very bituminous and..dark-brown or black-coloured argillaceous shale.
1935 J. S. Lee Underworld of East (2000) xxxii. 141 One young fellow..suddenly started to vomit black-coloured bile.
2007 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 11 Apr. 5 The man..had short brown hair and was wearing a black-coloured sweatshirt.
black-cornered adj.
a1616 Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) v. i. 42 When the day serues, before blacke-corner'd night.
1876 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 29 Apr. 528/2 Von Tschudi..says, that a profligate coquero may be known by his foul breath, stumpy teeth, pale quivering lips, black-cornered mouth..and general apathy.
1996 D. Marlatt Taken 84 The place itself has disappeared into faded sepia, a flickering sequence of frames, of black-cornered stills.
black-favoured adj.
1681 London Gaz. No. 1668/4, A middle siz'd, Black Favour'd [man].
1830 W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peasantry I. 47 ‘Who is this coming down toardst us?’ said the black-favoured man.
1989 B. Hinton Heart's Clockwork 26 That night a figure rapped his door, black-favoured with a corpse's insistence and a crow's head, hooded.
black-framed adj.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, Queere-peepers, c. old fashion'd, ord'nary, black-framed, or common Looking glasses.
1858 A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 95 Little black-framed pictures.
1977 D. MacKenzie Raven & Kamikaze iii. 39 A black-framed oil of a Labrador.
2004 P. Biskind Down & Dirty Pictures iii. 91 Lipsky has an angular face and wore black-framed Mr. McGoo glasses.
black-garbed adj.
1767 N. Lardner tr. Libanius in Large Coll. Anc. Jewish & Heathen Testimonies IV. xlix. 141 Those black-garbed people, who eat more than elephants.
1892 Times 15 Apr. 5/1 This fine black-garbed battalion is to be quartered with its Regular comrades in the Rifle Depôt.
1921 E. Ferber Girls x. 209 Then she spied her, a draggled black-garbed figure.
2007 J. Sellers Perfect from now On vi. 69 Two black-garbed girls sat petitely watching the show.
black-gowned adj.
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. X2v, There was another black gowned Mountebanke that gaue most excellent contentment to the company that frequented his stage.
1778 Def. Theophilus Lindsey 6 The almost innumerable ranks of society, who..seldom, for fear of offending their mitred, surpliced, and black-gowned godships, look beyond a Creed or Catechism.
1845 Yale Lit. Mag. Jan. 122 Myriads of crown-shaven, black-gowned, knee-breeched, shoe-buckled, cocked-hatted and thin-legged priests, scuttling about.
1995 K. Toolis Rebel Hearts (1997) iii. 91 Rows of black-gowned bewigged barristers fiddled with their papers.
black-hafted adj.
1553 J. Locke Jrnl. 27 Aug. in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1599) II. 107 They did take a blacke hafted knife, and with the edge of the same did crosse the said taile as if they would cut it in twain.
1994 R. Jordan Lord of Chaos xxii. 335 He rode on,..the black-hafted spear thrust behind the saddle girth on the opposite side from his unstrung bow.
black-haired adj. [compare Old English blæcfeaxede dark-haired]
c1540 (▸?a1400) Destr. Troy viii. 3780 Telamon truly was a tulke full faire, Blake horit.
1657 S. Clarke Geogr. Descr. 154 They [sc. the Samoeds] are all black-haired, and beardlesse.
1771 E. Burke Speech on Jury Bill in Writings & Speeches (1981) II. 346 Whether a blackhaired man or a fair-haird man presided in the Court of Kings Bench.
1899 Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 26 256 Palpi and antennæ black, densely black-haired.
1992 I. Banks Crow Road (1993) i. 9 The tall and still dramatically black-haired Mr Blawke.
black-hilted adj.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xv. 409 Many a black-hilted faulchion huge of haft Fell to the ground.
1996 B. Cornwell Bloody Ground (2001) 180 The man wore a black hilted saber at his side, a weapon as crude as a butcher's blade.
black-hooded adj.
1751 S. Richardson Clarissa (ed. 3) IV. xlii. 258 The windows, the sign-irons and balconies (garrets, gutters, and chimney-tops included) all white-capt, black-hooded, and periwigg'd.
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VI. 437 Black-hooded Wheat-ear.
1946 E. A. Armstrong Shakespeare's Imagination ii. 23 The bat in folklore is the symbol of the black-hooded figure who has the last word in the drama of life.
2002 Time Out N.Y. 29 Aug. 150/2 A member of Tony's music staff once played in a band that opened for the legendary black-hooded thug-rockers.
black-hooved adj. (also black-hoofed (poet.))
1678 J. P. tr. J. Johnston Descr. Nature Four-footed Beasts ii. 37/2 The sides have black spots; footed like the goat, black-hoofed.
1876 Galaxy Mar. 318 But a black-hooféd beast with the head of a man Stole down where she sat at my side.
2002 Kenyon Rev. Spring 25 The brownish-pink flesh encased in a layer of glistening fat, the black-hooved legs tied together.
black-horned adj.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 128, The best [bullocks] commonly haue these properties: large, well knit, and sounde lyms, a long, a large, and deepe sided body, blacke horned, [etc.].
1606 T. Pierson in W. Perkins Combat Christ & Diuell (ed. 2) 1st Ep. Ded. sig. A2v, It may be he hath seene the plaiers and the painters Diuels, some blacke horned monster with broad eies, crooked clawes or clouen feet.
1728 A. Ramsay in Poems (1844) 60 The devil's..Appearing sometimes like a black-horned cow, Aft-times like bawty.
1834 Farmer's Mag. Oct. 452/2 Black-horned Highland cattle.
1912 Irish Rev. 2 207 It was a grand black-horned Eland, leaping like a horse.
2005 Oregonian (Nexis) 2 Dec. 8 An artiste in leather pants madly charcoals a sketch of a black-horned being with flames erupting from its head.
black-jacketed adj.
1857 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 27 69 Pale Chinamen and black-jacketed Shans.
1960 Duke Law Jrnl. 3 323 (note) A gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slackjawed, black-jacketed.
2009 Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Aug. a8 As the engines settled into idle, onlookers milled around the black-jacketed bikers and their machines.
black-lipped adj.
1614 J. Cooke Greenes Tu Quoque sig. C, We suck'd a white leafe from my blacke-lipp'd penne.
a1849 T. L. Beddoes Death's Jest-bk. (1850) iii. iii. 87 Swine,..for a smile, and kiss, and pout, I much prefer your black-lipped snout.
1971 J. Stidworthy Snakes of World 101 The Black-and-White Cobra (Naja melanoleuca ), also known as the black-lipped cobra and forest cobra, lives in Africa from Gambia in the west to Kenya in the east.
2009 A. S. Byatt Children's Bk. 184 Red and angry, black-lipped and uttering a desperate whimper, the child shot into the world.
black-maned adj.
1705 T. Hearne Ductor Historicus (ed. 2) I. iii. 409 Three Thousand Mares did in his Marches feed, Whom Boreas cover'd like a black-main'd Steed.
1850 R. Gordon-Cumming Five Years Hunter's Life S. Afr. II. xxii. 112 The most magnificent old black-maned lion.
1872 J. S. Blackie Lays of Highlands 113 The black-maned clouds, like Furies on the wing, Skir past.
1998 Shutterbug's Outdoor & Nature Photogr. Fall 55/1 This caldera..is home to black-maned lions.
black-orbed adj.
1777 R. Potter tr. Æschylus Tragedies 143 Seven valiant chiefs Slew on the black-orb'd shield the victim bull.
1938 W. de la Mare Memory 73 Prowling, black-orbed, disconsolate, Questing antennae, quivering wing.
1999 V. Seth Equal Music (2000) iii. 103 A black-orbed clock shows two golden figures, a goddess and a young man.
black-plumed adj.
1675 E. Sherburne tr. M. Manilius Sphere 53 Corvinus! on whose Crest Phoebus does in his black-plum'd Emblem rest.
1735 Sportsman's Dict. I. at Hawk, There is a kind of swarthy, black plumed hawk, that is good mettle.
1857 Trewman's Exeter Flying Post 22 Oct. 6/6 He had always such a dislike to black-plumed hearses..that he would sooner ride miles than meet one of the sable equipages.
1998 J. Barnes England, England (1999) 249 The funeral was an affair of orotundity and black-plumed horses.
black-scarfed adj.
1869 Temple Bar Oct. 291 She sees the drooped pall and the black-scarfed mourners.
1917 D. H. Lawrence Look! We have come Through! 81 Black-scarved faces of womenfolk.
2000 N. Gage Greek Fire (2001) xxii. 516 Black-scarved village women holding bunches of wildflowers crossed themselves as the casket passed.
black-shawled adj.
1882 Cent. Mag. Jan. 321/1 There are many of them [sc. women] abroad at this hour, gliding with soft steps, black-shawled, or folded in dark rebozos , through the streets.
1929 R. Graves Poems 27 The black-shawled peasant woman.
2005 A. Bennett Untold Stories (2006) 560 As I was borne in on a stretcher, black-shawled ladies gazed down at me, raised their eyes to heaven, and crossed themselves.
black-skinned adj.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts viii. f. xxxiiiiv, An Ethiopian borne, blacke skynned, but one that shoulde sone after be clothed with a garment of a lambes flece.
1655 T. Moffett & C. Bennet Healths Improvem. xxiii. 226 Radish roots of the Garden (for they are best) are either long and white without, or round like a Turnep, and very black skinned.
1781 R. Harrington Philos. & Exper. Enq. 269 The human species, near the equator, should be quite black skinned, while those near the poles should be white skinned.
1835 Farmer's Reg. May 759/2 In general, the white skinned sorts [of potatoes] are fit for the table from August to Christmas—the black skinned sorts from October to May.
1986 Jrnl. Royal Coll. Physicians 20 117/1 Black-skinned individuals are protected from the damage caused by ultraviolet by the melanin pigment.
2005 Independent 24 June 13/2 A black-skinned apricot has been developed in California by crossing the fruit with a plum.
black-souled adj. (and n.)
1648 Mercurius Impartialis No. 1 6 A base perfidious, perjur'd, black-soul'd elfe, Who first destroy'd thy Countrey, then thy selfe.
1749 A. Hill tr. Voltaire Merope iii. iii. 41 Some black-soul'd Fiend, some Fury ris'n from Hell.
1840 W. Whitman Uncoll. Poetry & Prose (1921) I. 15 All lie earth's spreading arms within, The pure, the black-souled, proud and low.
1944 E. Blunden Shells by Stream 43 And forth from black-souled hurricanes Conjures glad day.
2003 P. Williamson Wages of Sin (2004) iii. 18 She wasn't sweet Remy anymore, but the red-lipped, black-souled vamp who picked up men, bled them dry, and threw them away.
black-spotted adj.
1545 T. Paynell tr. St. Bernard Compend. Treat. Well Liuynge xxvii. f. cxiiv, Therfore yf ye wyll wasshe cleane awaye youre blacke spotted sinnes.
1662 R. Smith (title) A Wonder of Wonders:..an Invective against Black-spotted Faces.
1768 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) II. 369 (heading) The black spotted sandpiper.
1884 G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals 468 The Atlantic Salmon, and the black-spotted species of the west.
1932 D. Gascoyne Rom. Balcony 9 A tattered projection of black-spotted leaves On a branch.
1995 Mother Earth News Feb.–Mar. 14/2 They are complimented by copper-red, black-spotted little butterflies called coppers.
black-stockinged adj.
1839 C. Otway Tour in Connaught viii. 180 He was overtaken..by a moon-faced, able-bodied person, the ample calves of whose black stockinged legs protruded from top boots.
1970 T. Southern Blue Movie i. i. 19 The same rear master-shot..of some cretin's buttocks thrusting halfheartedly into a dopey girl's black-stockinged honey-pot.
2003 C. Birch Turn again Home ii. 22 They watched her skinny black-stockinged legs, twisting and writhing crazily in the frenzy of a made-up dance.
black-stoled adj.
1758 Gentleman's Mag. Sept. 434/1 Gloomy Spleen, and sullen Care! Of black-stol'd Night, and horrid Hydra born.
1815 Scott Lord of Isles ii. xxii. 66 The black-stoled brethren.
1973 Arion 1 188 From the absolution by a black-stoled Benedictine with aspergillum and censer..four gondoliers in their Sunday best brought the coffin through the Palladian doors of San Giorgio Maggiore.
black-striped adj.
1718 R. Bradley New Improvem. Planting & Gardening: Pt. 2 (ed. 2) vi. 126 The several kinds of Crocus which blossom in the Spring are the common Yellow and Black strip'd, the Yellow Dutch.., and the White sort.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 420 One of the most beautiful of our species is the ‘Black-striped Minnow’.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 167 She [sc. a goat]..reaches her black-striped face up like a snake.
2004 W. B. McCloskey Raiders ii. viii. 108 Fish bycatch included the thick, flat, black-striped ishidai they had eaten raw.
black-veiled adj.
1631 J. Weever Anc. Funerall Monuments 238 An house of blacke veyled Nunnes.
1768 P. Morant Hist. Essex II. 296/2 This religious house was founded, for Black veiled Nuns of the Benedictine order, before the year 1190.
1876 E. Jenkins Devil's Chain vii. 114 The woman..looked at the long, black-veiled figure of the mourner with respectful sympathy.
1906 B. von Hutten What became of Pam iii. i, A black-veiled nursing-sister.
2000 P. Petrone Embracing Serafina iii. 130 Damascus was a babble of sound and a whirl of colour: black-coated and black-veiled Moslem women; coiffured ladies in Western dress.
black-visaged adj.
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge Prol. sig. A2v, Let such Hurrie amaine from our black visag'd showes: We shall affright their eyes.
1710 London Gaz. No. 4695/3, This William Charlton is a black visag'd Man.
1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers I. i. 5 There was an odd, intelligent expression in their faces, as well as those of the black-visaged sheep.
2009 Embalmer Mar. 14/2 The six men entered a black-visaged van, the closed, windowless side of which hid them from view.
black-waved adj.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xiii. sig. K3, Styx, and black-wau'd Acheron.
1882 W. Allan After-toil Songs 15 Up on the wind-swept bridge the sea-beaten captain stood, Scanning the black rack's lour, which trailed on the black-waved flood.
1996 S. J. Ostrander Great Nat. Areas Eastern Pennsylvania lvi. 183 Barrens are also prime habitats for rare butterflies and moths, such as the..frosted elfin, and black-waved flannel moth.
S2. Similative.
black-looking adj.
1753 R. Sheils & T. Cibber Lives Poets Great Brit. & Irel. II. 290 A black-looking ugly son of a w—— , who had no money in his pocket.
1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xx. 328 He was a little, black-looking man.
1995 W. H. Turner Chesapeake Boyhood (1997) 104 We had often looked out into the Bay and seen large flocks of black-looking ducks which turned out to be scoters.
S3. Modifying colour words to form adjectives and nouns indicating a blackish shade of the colour concerned, as black-brown, black-green,black-grey, etc.
OE Antwerp Gloss. (1955) 156 Ferrugo, blac purpur.
1418 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 37 (MED), A Cloke of Blake russet.
1462 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1855) II. 254 (MED), Unum equum coloris le blak gray.
1554 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 282 Ane hors. blak-broune mowitt, with ane bell in the forrett.
1606 Edinb. Test. XLI. f. 314v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at Blak gray) xj bollis blak gray aittis.
1685 London Gaz. 2037/4 Stolen or strayed..a black-brown Gelding.
1757 tr. J. F. Henckel Pyritologia iii. 30 Suphur is observed to reduce the white metals, and the semimetals, as silver, lead, regulus of antimony, to black, or black-grey bodies.
1841 R. Browning Pippa Passes i, in Bells & Pomegranates No. 1 6/1 Its black-blue canopy seemed let descend.
1844 A. W. Kinglake Eothen xxvii. 387 A long, low line of blackest green.
1849 D. Campbell Pract. Text-bk. Inorg. Chem. 257 This oxide separates after some time as a black-green hydride.
1877 G. Nevile Horses xv. 105 A black-chestnut will clip the same colour he was before.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 180 The black-green skirts of a yellow-green old Mexican woman.
1995 V. Chandra Red Earth & Pouring Rain (1996) 127 The woman..was bleeding in several places, slashed in long black-red lines across the arms and white back.
S4. With adverbial force, esp. as an intensifier with negative connotations. a. With the sense ‘badly’, ‘severely’.black afraid and black angry are found esp. in the writings of Samuel Rutherford Crockett and John Buchan.
black afraid adj.
1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xli. 297 We are all black afraid, only—we do not all show it!
1910 J. Buchan Prester John v. 97 I'll admit the truth to you, Davie. I'm black afraid.
a1940 J. Buchan Sick Heart River (1941) iii. ii. 239 I'm afraid, black afraid of this damned country.
black angry adj.
1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders i. 3, I could have broken his head, for I was black angry at the senseless and causeless cruelty of the shooting.
1915 J. Buchan Salute to Adventurers iii. 47, I had been sore at my imprisonment, I was black angry at this manner of release.
1999 B. Teran God is Bullet 229 Bob knows her well enough from the way she's rocking back and forth on her boots and the turn her eyes take, getting black angry, that she's gonna blow.
black depressed adj.
1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. i. 24 His father was black depressed.
1991 Billboard (Nexis) 3 Aug. 1 The clove cigarette smoking, black depressed, psychedelic cool people who kept to themselves.
b.
† black babbling adj. Obs. babbling maliciously, slanderous.
1624 F. Quarles Job Militant sig. E3, Earths black babbling Daughter (she that heares, And vents alike, both Truth and Forgeries).
1647 R. Baron Εροτοπαιγνιον i. 13 Earths black babling daughter spred the pinions of swift wings, advanced her shrill trumpet, and fill'd the inquiring eares of Tripolis, with the relation of our journey.
† black boding adj. Obs. of ill omen, inauspicious.
1743 E. Young Complaint: Night the Fourth 3 Black-boding Man Receives, not suffers Death's tremendous Blow.
1841 Knickerbocker Nov. 433 The black-boding seal that tells of death.
1895 A. Lang in C.O. Murray Border Ballads p. xviii, The picture..is wonderfully vivid: the turf wall (fail dyke), behind it the knight slain in some Border feud, and the converse of the two black boding corbies.
† black fasting adj. Obs. enduring a very severe fast; cf. black fast n. at Special uses 5a.
1664 Floddan Field vii. 66 Black fasting as they were born.
1823 Scott St. Ronan's Well II. iii. 61 To sit for ten hours thegither, black fasting.
S5. a.
black-about adj. nonce-wd. black all around.
1876 G. M. Hopkins Wreck of Deutschland xxiv, in Poems (1967) 59 She to the black-about air..Was calling.
Black Act n. now hist. a severe law of 1723 (9 Geo. I. c. 22) against poaching, trespassing, etc. (cf. sense B. 10c).
1789 G. White Nat. Hist. Selborne 18 The Waltham blacks..committed such enormities, that government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the black act.
1809 T. E. Tomlins Jacob's Law-dict. (at cited word), A virtual repeal of the punishment inflicted by the Black Act.
1933 Amer. Hist. Rev. 38 247 The Black Act..made it a felony with the death penalty for anyone while disguised to kill deer illegally.
1999 M. Shoard Right to Roam iii. 121 The notorious Black Act of 1723 created fifty new offences punishable by death, but in fact few people actually went to the gallows for breaking the game laws and poaching, say, a single fish.
black Africa n. sub-Saharan Africa, characterized as inhabited or ruled predominantly by black people (and thus contrasted with northern Africa).Early use by white colonists, missionaries, etc., often had additional connotations of benightedness; either for this reason, or because of generally increased racial sensitivity, the term is now sometimes avoided as potentially offensive.
1789 J. Lowe Liberty or Death 49 Be not surprized, ye Amazons of France, if on reading ‘This day a female slave plunged herself into the sea and was drowned’ ye see the Amazons of black Africa, as fond of liberty as yourselves!
1858 Ann. Rep. Amer. Colonization Soc. 36 The black missionary to black Africa, like to like.
1887 H. S. Fulkerson Negro iii. 80 The country in Africa known on the map as Ethiopia, (meaning land of the scorched faces) is often confounded with black Africa, hence we sometimes hear the Negro called an Ethiopian.
1938 L. Hughes New Song 10 Torn from Black Africa's strand I came.
1975 E. Shils in H. M. Patel et al. Say not Struggle Nought Availeth 83 In Black Africa, between 1954 and 1970, they have increased the number of pupils in primary schools threefold.
2001 N.Y. Times 4 Jan. a16/1 Migrants entering Niger pass through Agadez, about 350 miles southwest, which..has served for centuries as a gateway between black Africa to the south and Arab Africa to the north.
black African n. and adj. (a) n. a dark-skinned African; esp. one who is a native or inhabitant of sub-Saharan Africa (cf. black Africa n.); (b) adj.of or relating to black Africans.
1633 W. Rowley All's Lost by Lust i. sig. B3v, Souldiers should be forward; looke yee I have bright steele for the blacke Affricans.
1710 W. Hume Sacred Succession 89 His Followers prevailing most in the black African Regions.
1787 O. Cugoano Thoughts & Sentiments on Evil & Wicked Traffic of Slavery 43 Bloody slavery carried on by the inhuman, barbarous Europeans, against the poor unfortunate Black Africans.
1891 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 7 Nov. 711/2 The descendants of a black African man and woman in America will perpetuate the negro type with marked persistency.
1969 A. F. Addona Organization of Afr. Unity 11 There are at least three types of ‘Africans’: the Arab African, the black African, and the White African.
2004 U.S. News & World Rep. 28 June–5 July 26/1 Accounts from dozens of refugees in Darfur..provide evidence of an organized campaign by Arab Janjaweed militias..to rid the Darfur regions of its 80 black African tribes.
black amber n. (a) = jet n.2 1a; †(b) = ambergris n. (obs.); (c) a dark-coloured amber.
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words, Geat, a sort of precious stone, otherwise called black Amber.
1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon iii. ix. 447 Some pieces of Amber-gris, (or rather black Amber, for it was of that colour).
1773 W. Lewis & C. Neumann Chem. Wks. Caspar Neumann (ed. 2) I. 384 There is a hard light sort [of coal] not staining the fingers..; capable of being polished, filed, cut, and turned... called Gagates and Succinum nigrum, jet or black Amber.
1871 A. Hope & A. Harvey Turkish Harems & Circassian Homes vi. 105 Yellow amber should be of the palest primrose hue, but there is another shade that is now much prized, namely, the black amber.
1886 Antiquiary 3 116/1 The electrical qualities of jet obtained it the name of black amber.
1932 G. C. Williamson Bk. of Amber 214 The ordinary phrase of Black Amber applied by dealers to Rumanite is misleading, because its colour value is a very high one.
2004 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 5 Sept. 1 Amber is on sale all over Lithuania, ranging from..the black amber we seldom see in the UK, to the pale yellow that is the most expensive.
Black America n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) the black population of the United States, esp. considered as a cultural or political entity.
1891 W. L. Clowes (title) Black America: a study of the ex-slave and his late master.
1973 Black Panther 10 Nov. 14/3 The peoples of the Third World look to Black America for support in their struggles.
2004 New Republic 15 Mar. 6/2 Al is positioning himself to be leader of black America.
Black American n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of the United States who is black; an African-American; (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating Black Americans.For discussion of this use of black in the United States, see note at sense A. 3.
1818 H. B. Fearon Sketches of Amer. 61 Black Americans are..practically and politically slaves.
1892 F. A. Durham Lone-star of Liberia i. 16 Mr. Frederick Douglass (who is a Mulatto) had for his first wife a Black American lady of full, unmixed blood.
1959 E. Muhammad Fall of Amer. (1973) i. 5 Here we are, upwards of twenty million Black Americans who have given their blood, sweat, and service for four hundred years in the vain hope that one day justice would be ours.
1971 B. Sidran Black Talk i. 13 One psychologist..has attempted to chart and analyze black American singing.
2000 A. Calcutt Brit Cult 95/2 It is often said that drum'n'bass is as distinctively British as hip-hop is black American.
2010 Ebony Feb. 14/1 The imprint Black Americans leave is deserving of celebration throughout the year.
† black-apronry n. Obs. nonce-wd. the wearers of black aprons, spec. the clerical and legal professions (cf. apron n. 2).
1832 M. O'Doherty in Blackwood's Mag. Oct. 427 The absurd etiquette which prevents [them] from following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry, and Black-leggery.
blackarm n. orig. U.S. a bacterial disease of cotton plants caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas malvacearum, characterized by angular black lesions on the stem and fruiting branches.
1902 Proc. 26th Ann. Meeting Georgia State Hort. Soc. 47 This form is sometimes known as ‘black-arm’ and sometimes does much damage to Sea Island and Egyptian cotton in South Carolina and Southern Georgia.
1931 Wellington (Texas) Leader 26 Mar. 8/1 In severe cases of black-arm, large patches of diseased tissue may completely girdle the stalks, which then break off.
1991 Biogr. Mem. Fellows Royal Soc. 37 285 R. L. Knight..had been employed..to work on the genetics of resistance to an important bacterial disease of cotton, widely known at the time as ‘blackarm’, but later referred to as bacterial blight.
Black Army n. [after German Schwarze Reichswehr (1923 or earlier)] now hist. (a collective term for) the militias established in the Weimar Republic after the First World War (1914–18) in order to circumvent the restrictions placed on the size of the German army by the Treaty of Versailles (cf. free corps n. at free adj., n., and adv. Special uses 2).
[1923 Boston Daily Globe 2 Oct. 23/7 The ‘Black Reichswehr’..—Nationalist groups which had nuclei throughout Germany for months—are now growing so fast it is no longer possible to control them.]
1924 Daily Mail 10 June 7/7 The term ‘Black Army’ is used first for members of the organisations who keep their arms in their homes, like the Swiss militia, or in carefully hidden arsenals, and, secondly, for troops who are organised in regular army fashion.
1945 Los Angeles Times 25 Sept. ii. 4/6 He gave assurances that the Reichswehr and the Black army would throw the Poles back beyond the prewar frontier.
1977 Central European Hist. 10 128 Rossbach..was an organizer of the ‘black army’ (commonly known as Black Reichswehr) which Saxony, Prussia, and Thuringia had encountered during their attempts to outlaw the racist German People's Freedom Party.
1996 R. Kimber & R. Kimber tr. K. Kreimeier Ufa Story (1999) xv. 174 Other advance troops of the ‘conservative revolution’—from the Free Corps to the Black Army of the Reich..—had long been prepared to march on into a Führer's state.
Black Australian n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of Australia who is black; an Australian Aboriginal; (b) adj. of or relating to Black Australians.
1863 Trans. Ethnol. Soc. London 2 253 In regions in which it [sc. nature] planted..the black Australian..there now thrives the White Man of Europe.
1883 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 5 [He] made some excursions in the interior of the mainland, in order to study the natives,..and throw some light on the..origin of the black Australian race.
1982 Peace News 15 Oct. 6/2 Since Black Australians can't get control of their own land,..a token piece of the white colony was being claimed temporarily.
1998 J. Kalb Theater of Heiner Müller vii. 136 Most of them are middle-class professionals doing the play in their spare time, not illiterate and impoverished outcasts, the usual depiction of Aborigines even in Black Australian theater.
2009 Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) (Nexis) 4 Oct., Siri in Amsterdam allows himself to be mistakenly identified as a Black Australian although he is no Aborigine.
black bag adj. [from the black bag in which equipment required for such an operation was typically carried] U.S. colloq. (now chiefly hist.) designating a covert intelligence operation carried out esp. by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, involving illegal entry into premises; esp. inblack bag job.Such operations were declared to be unconstitutional in the United States in the early 1970s.
1966 Los Angeles Times 23 Aug. ii. 6/6 The new man [to lead the C.I.A.] probably also ought to be an outsider (with no interest in covering up past mistakes or prolonging old quarrels) given to study and evaluation (rather than black-bag tricks).
1972 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 25 June a5/3 The abortive black-bag job of the Democratic National Committee headquarters by five yo-yos..has plumbed the very depths of outrageous activity.
2000 T. Clancy Bear & Dragon vii. 110 Now it's called ‘special operations’; back then it was a ‘black bag job’—and we weren't always very careful about getting a warrant.
black ban n. Austral. and N.Z. a prohibition which prevents work from proceeding, usually imposed by a trade union as a form of industrial action.
1970 K. F. Walker Austral. Industr. Relations Syst. vii. 224 The Broken Hill unions have employed all the various forms [of direct action]: strike, go-slow, black ban, [etc.].
1996 Sunday News (Auckland) (Nexis) 27 Oct. 19 Fire and progress almost ended the life of the theatre, but thanks to a union black ban which held up demolition and a multi-million dollar refit by local property developers, the Regent was saved.
2006 T. Bramston Wran Era App. 292 A two-year black ban by the Transport Workers Union starting in October 1976 torpedoed the pilot Regional Freight Centre at Tamworth.
black band n. now chiefly hist. a dark-coloured clayey stratum of iron ore occurring in the coal measures (esp. in Scotland) and containing sufficient carbonaceous matter for smelting; iron ore of this kind; usu. attrib., as black-band ore, etc. [The discovery of black band ore is normally credited to David Mushet. Compare:1855 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 3 Aug. 636/1 In 1801 he [sc. David Mushet] discovered, in crossing the river Calder,..a new vein of ironstone, called the Black Band, and ever since known in Scotland as ‘Mushet's Black Band’.
]
1811 Mem. Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. 1 497/1 (table) Black bands, with iron-stone.
1838 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1837 379 A seam of black band, at a depth of 15 to 25 fathoms under the splint, or fifth seam of coal, of the Lanarkshire basin.
1846 Fisher's National Mag. 1 173 The ‘Black Band Ore’ recently discovered at Ransh Gap in great abundance, is not known in any other section of the United States.
1903 Trans. Inst. Mining Engin. 22 108 As the blackband ironstone contains a considerable amount of carbonaceous matter, little or no fuel is added to the ruck.
1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. xiii. 191 These ores, even the ‘Blackband Ores’, consisting of alternate layers of coaly and ferruginous material, are not worked today.
2008 R. L. Lewis Welsh Americans ii. 62 John Lewis..recognized that the bottom of this little mine was not worthless blackstone but rather black-band ore.
black beauty n. N. Amer. slang = black bomber n.
1966 Boston Globe 27 May 4/2 The youngsters broke into laughter..at the pathetic descriptions of teen-agers who have gone berserk under the influence of near death-dealing doses of sleeping tablets, cough syrups, pep pills, ‘black beauties’, [etc.].
2003 A. Franken Lies xxix. 240 Wakey-wakeys. You know, pep pills, black beauties.
black beer n. (a) any of various beers which are very dark in colour, esp. from the use of roasted malt in the brewing process; (b) a dark and syrupy beer, traditionally made using the leaves and branches of the spruce tree.
1678 J. Browne Compl. Disc. Wounds xiv. 77 And for this Use Sperma Ceti, black Beer, Pulv. ad Casum, and the like, being taken inwardly, are good and proper.
1799 Hull Advertiser 15 June 1/3 For sale... Spruce or black beer, in kegs and half kegs.
1894 Act 57 & 58 Vict. c. 30 §25 The duties of Customs now payable on beer of the descriptions called mum, spruce, or black beer, imported into Great Britain or Ireland.
1992 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 9 June 9 A Yorkshire drink known as black beer. This syrupy drink..is normally mixed with milk or lemonade before it is drunk.
2009 J. Mcllvain et al. Fodor's Patagonia iii. 102 Black beer is suggested with smoked meats.
Black Beret n. chiefly in pl. (a) a member of any of various elite military units having a black beret as part of their uniform; (b) a member of any of various militant groups distinguished by the wearing of a black beret.
1966 N.Y. Times 28 Dec. 3 (caption) Black Berets, members of the Navy's corps of guerrilla fighters, take part in simulated mission.
1971 G. MacEóin Revol. Next Door vii. 168 Mora is a Black Beret, the Chilean version of the Green Berets.
1972 N. R. Pierce Mountain States of Amer. 282 City officials..showed great reluctance to confer with the leading local militant group, the Black Berets, a ‘brown power’ organization.
1991 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 20 Jan. 3 b, If legislators balk, his [sc. Gorbachev's] Black Berets can surround the Supreme Soviet and conduct a Pride's purge.
2006 L. Pulido Black Brown Yellow & Left ii. vi. 167 Other organizations were influenced by and emulated the BPP. Such groups include the aim,..the Red Guard, and the Black Berets.
black betty n. U.S. (now hist. and rare) a liquor bottle or jug made of dark glass; cf. Betty n. 3.With quot. 1737 see to kiss the cup at kiss v. 6b.
1737 B. Franklin Drinker's Dict. 13 Jan. in Papers (1960) II. 174 A Man is drunk... He's kiss'd black Betty.
1835 N. Ames Old Sailor's Yarns xviii. 277 If you've got any white-eye in that black betty,..I don't much care if I take a drop.
1880 in C. T. Greeve Cent. Hist. Cincinnati (1904) I. 463 They didn't forget to pass the old ‘black betty’, filled with good old peach brandy.
1992 J. M. Faragher Daniel Boone i. ii. 43 The rowdies who gathered on the wedding morning, passing the jug (‘Black Betty’).
black bile n. see bile n. 3.
black bill n. now hist. a type of halberd with a black head; cf. bill n.1 2a.
1480 Bill of Expenditure in Mariner's Mirror 64 (1978) 233 Iiij blake bills, v shepp sperys, v long bowys..xij bow strynges.
1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres i. 5 Thus much..to our inueterate conceiters of bowes and blacke billes.
1688 A. Pulton Some Reflections 8 A Band of Bully Scholars, marching under ground with their Black-Bills.
1839 Short Hist. Tower of London 26 The bill, and the English black bill, are very ancient arms, and were those principally used by the infantry before the introduction of the pike.
1908 B. E. Sargeaunt Weapons ii. 24 Certain weapons were termed ‘brown-bills’ or ‘black-bills’ on account of the colour of the material put on the metal to preserve it.
2007 L. Brittney Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times (2008) v. 76 There are rapiers.., battle axes, black bills.
black blizzard n. N. Amer. (now chiefly hist.) a severe dust storm on the North American prairies.
1895 R. W. Furnas Ann. Rep. Nebraska State Board Agric. 76 The severe dust storm, called the ‘black blizzard’, which prevailed over the state.
1934 Los Angeles Times 29 Apr. i. 21/1 Black blizzards sweeping over the Middle West are menacing crops in huge areas of the ‘world's bread basket’.
2007 Oklahoman (Nexis) 16 Oct. 1 e, Black blizzards of the Dust Bowl brought ‘dust pneumonia’ to the Panhandle.
black bog n. now chiefly hist. a bog of a deep brown to dark black colour, typically composed of heavy, compact material; land consisting of such a bog; freq. contrasted, esp. in Ireland, with red bog.
1739 Dublin Society's Weekly Observ. 1 122 Black Bogs yield some Kind of Pasture, of a finer or a coarser Grass, according to the Nature of the Bog.
1772 H. Brooke Brief Ess. on Nature of Bogs 6 There is another kind of Bog called black Bog, and this is readily reformable, at small cost and trouble, into the most prolific of all sorts of Soil.
1814 4th Rep. Commissioners Bogs Ireland 127 in Parl. Papers 1813–14 (H.C. 131) VI. 167 These bogs do not form one continuous mass of red bog, but are connected together by intervening tracts of black bog.
1864 Once a Week 18 June 706/2 In Ireland alone there are nearly a million and a half of acres of red and black bog, and a million and a quarter of mountain bog.
1900 S. Baring-Gould Bk. Dartmoor i. 7 Here may be found Cranmere Pool, which is now no pool at all, but just a small piece of bare black bog.
1996 J. Feehan & G. O'Donovan Bogs of Ireland ii. 39 There was a difference of opinion [in the 19th century] as to whether it was more remunerative to reclaim red or black bog.
black bomber n. slang a black capsule or tablet containing a mixture of amphetamine drugs; (sometimes) spec. a Biphetamine capsule.
1963 Times 22 Aug. 17/2 Drugs named in the various charges included ‘purple hearts’, soneryl, methadrine, and ‘black bombers’.
1964 Lancet 29 Aug. 452/1 The preparations in circulation apparently included ‘black bombers’ (‘Durophet’, a mixture of the two amphetamines).
2003 Independent 22 Dec. (Review section) 5/2 We all smoked dope, and we all took uppers—Black Bombers and Purple Hearts—particularly on Friday and Saturday nights.
† black bowl n. Obs. a tar-coated, leather drinking bowl; cf. black jack n.2 1.
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure xxix. 136 He never dranke but in a fayre blacke boule.
1568 U. Fulwell Like will to Like sig. B.iiii, From morning til night I sit tossing the black bole.
1651 in J. Taylor Ale ale-vated into Ale-titude 20 Body and Soule may blesse the Black bowle.
1856 G. Gilfillan Hist. Man i. 36 On returning to the house, there was a new set of hero-and-toddy-worshippers arrived; the black bowl was again produced, and Burns' mood was changed accordingly.
black bread n. [compare post-classical Latin panis niger (1283, 1338 in British sources), Middle French, French pain noir (1343)] a coarse dark kind of bread, esp. any of various types of dark rye bread.
1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints l. 9911 Blak brede..In hote watyr moystyd..she eet.
1484 Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) cxxxiiii. 178 They..ete black brede and metes of lytyll sauoure.
1596 T. Danett tr. P. de Comines Hist. viii. vii. 340 Two daies I ate nothing but naughty blacke bread: yet was I none of those that stood in most neede.
1635 W. Saltonstall tr. G. Mercator Historia Mundi 551 Their [sc. the Westphalians'] food is blacke bread and cheese: their flesh meate is Porke, hung Beefe, and Bacon.
1765 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy VII. viii. 29 He had lost five minutes already, in alighting in order to get at a luncheon of black bread.
1820 T. Hodgskin Trav. in North of Germany I. 306 The celebrated pumpernickel, a black bread made of rye, with nothing separated from it but the husks of the grain.
1933 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 3 Aug. in Locked Rooms & Open Doors (1974) 72 Mrs. Rasmussen's lunch is very good: sardines on black bread with a little oil paper laid on top to keep it moist.
1977 T. Kilroy Talbot's Box (1979) 21 Mondays only the black bread and the black tay.
2008 Gold Coast (Australia) Bull. (Nexis) 2 Jan., Black bread, sausages, fried eggs and cucumber pickles rinsed down with a cup of strong, hot tea is more of the breakfast trademark in Russia.
black brigade n. freq. humorous (a) a group of members of the clergy, esp. one likened to a military unit; the clergy considered collectively; (b)(with capital initials) (a nickname for) the Church Parliamentary Committee, a group of Conservative Members of Parliament formed in 1892 to oppose disestablishment of the Church of England (now hist.).
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza v. 125 The black Brigades, that did on Rome depend, Assert her Power, and impious Cause defend.
1881 Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 393/1 Cassidy..ostentatiously kept away from mass, and inveighed against the ‘black brigade’.
1895 Daily News 20 May 4/7 The Welsh Church Bill will have no better chance with the Peers for being left to the tender mercies of the ‘Black Brigade’ until they are tired of the struggle.
1907 A. S. T. Griffith-Boscawen Fourteen Years Parl. vi. 65 The Church Parliamentary Party (or Black Brigade, as we were now jocularly styled) were well to the fore.
1987 G. I. T. Machin Politics & Churches in Great Brit., 1869 to 1921 v. iv. 210 Opposition in Parliament was later shown particularly by the Church Parliamentary Committee or ‘Church Party’ (or the ‘Black Brigade’ to its opponents).
1994 R. M. Crunden Brief Hist. Amer. Culture (1996) i. 26 The passions of these years would have been hard to sustain without the black brigades of Congregationalist clergy urging their flocks into something very close to a political Armageddon.
Black British n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. (with pl. concord) British people of black (or non-white) ethnic origin, identified as a distinct social and cultural group (cf. Black Briton n.); (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating this group.
1966 R. B. Davison (title) Black British: immigrants to England.
1979 Guardian 5 June 8/5 In Britain, there's still little reggae..that deals with the black British experience.
1987 C. Phillips European Tribe xiv. 125 The crisis of a second-generation black British community..will deepen in direct proportion to the vigour with which Britain tries to ignore the gross inequity of opportunity.
2003 K. Kwei-Armah Elmina's Kitchen i. i. 15 (stage direct.) Although black British, she too swings into authentic, full-attitude Jamaican at the drop of a hat.
2004 R. V. Arana in R. V. Arana & L. Ramey Black Brit. Writing ii. 20 From England, we learn that the English-English are suffering an identity crisis..while the black British are feeling ‘centered at last’.
Black Briton n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) a Black British person (see Black British n. and adj.).
1971 P. Haikin (title) Black Britons.
1975 S. Selvon Moses Ascending 21 Blessed be the coming of this new generation of Black Britons... It is a sight for sore eyes to see them flounce and bounce about the city, even if they capsize on their platforms and trip up in their maxis.
1999 B. Crick in R. English & C. Townshend State ix. 226 It is significant that fellow citizens from the new Commonwealth call themselves..‘Black Britons’ or ‘Black British’, but rarely if ever ‘Black English’, ‘Black Welsh’ or ‘Black Scots’.
2002 C. Williams Sugar & Slate 2 A second generation black Briton.
black bun n. a rich fruit cake in a pastry case, eaten esp. in Scotland at New Year; cf. hogmanay cake at hogmanay n. Compounds.
1898 J. L. Waugh ‘Mumper’ 104 I'se warrant ye hae nae black bun or currant loaf to first-fit wi'.
1958 Spectator 30 May 698/2 We could have done with something more like a haggis and less like a black bun.
1992 I. Rankin Good Hanging 190 New Year was the time for celebration, for first-footing, black bun, madeira cake, coal wrapped in silver foil.
black butter n. (a) a thick preserve made from fruit, esp. apples; cf. apple butter n. at apple n. Compounds 2; (b) butter browned in a pan and mixed with vinegar (or lemon juice) and parsley to make a sauce used esp. for fish; cf. beurre noir at beurre n.2
1775 C. Mason Lady's Assistant (ed. 2) 420 Black Butter. Three pounds of fruit, (viz. currants, gooseberries, rasberries, and cherries) to one pound of sixpenny sugar boiled till it is quite thick.
1808 J. Austen Let. 27 Dec. (1995) 160 Our Black Butter..was neither solid nor entirely sweet... Miss Austen had said she did not think it had been boiled enough.
1824 London Mag. Aug. 180 They [sc. the French] eat a Ray fried in black butter.
1906 Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. (rev. ed.) x. 273 Black Butter Sauce. Ingredients—1½ ozs. of butter, 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley, ½ a teaspoonful of vinegar.
1962 Listener 23 Aug. 299/1 Serve them [sc. mackerel] hot with black-butter sauce. To make the sauce..melt 2 ounces of butter until it is dark brown but not burnt, and then throw chopped parsley into it and let it fry for a few seconds only.
1994 Independent on Sunday 9 Jan. (Review section) 39/3 Black Butter, which you can buy in Jersey. It's a treacly paste made from slowly boiled-down, caramelised apples.
2004 Independent (Tabloid ed.) 8 Dec. 5/1 Skate Also a traditional fish restaurant favourite, more recently turning up pan-fried (with black butter or capers) and poached.
black cab n. a black taxicab; (now usually) (Brit.) a type of taxi, originally and usually (but now not always) black, which may be hailed in the street and can accommodate up to five passengers in the rear, separated from the driver's seat by a partition (officially called Hackney cab); cf.minicab n.
1914 Cosmopolitan May 856/1 A moment later she entered a taxi-cab. ‘Follow that black cab,’ said Kennedy, to our driver.
1971 New Society 16 Sept. 499/3 Drivers of black cabs know they risk losing their licence if they should get into trouble.
1993 I. Welsh Trainspotting 5 We wir here first, Sick Boy sais, opening the taxi door.—Thir's another yin coming. He gestured up the Walk at an advancing black cab.
2009 Private Eye 18 Sept. 22/1 And now they're teaching him how to be a cab driver, driving round London in a black cab.
Black Canadian n. and adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (a) n. a native or inhabitant of Canada who is black; (b) adj. of, relating to, or designating Black Canadians.
1968 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 53 284 How do black Canadians differ from black Americans?
1972 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 401 186/1 The Blacks in Canada surveys the entire field of Black Canadian history from the Maritime Provinces to the Pacific Coast.
1987 Ebony July 22/3, I am a Black Canadian female studying law.
1996 R. W. Nelson in B. Schissel & L. Mahood Social Control in Canada xvii. 381 Many Black Canadians and African Americans find themselves dealing with ‘the oreo question’ of how to make it through the White-dominated school system while maintaining ties to their culture and local community.
2003 D. B. Nurse What's Black Critic to Do? 150 Kate is white, Jewish and from England. Diane is black Canadian.
black canon n. [from the colour of the habit worn; compare post-classical Latin canon niger (c1220)] now chiefly hist. a canon regular of St Augustine (see note at canon n.2 1).
1447 O. Bokenham Lives of Saints l. 137 (MED), In an old pryory Of blake chanons, hyr oo foot is.
a1525 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1923) I. 248 About the quhilk tyme sanct Austyne..began the ordour of blak channonis.
a1672 A. Wood Life (1848) 156 The abbey there, originally built for Black Canons.
1722 J. Stevens Addit. Dugdale's Monast. II. 69 By reason of their black Habit, worn over their white Surplices..generally call'd either Black Canons, or Canons of St. Augustin.
1850 Sketches Grange & Neighbourhood vii. 75 There was an hospice also, and the black canons were..ready to give the traveller spiritual counsel.
1996 Holiday Which? Mar. 100/1 Bolton Abbey marks the gateway to the dale and was home to the Black Canons—Augustinian monks who followed vows of poverty and chastity—until the Dissolution.
black carbon n. a black particulate form of pure carbon, typically resulting from the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material and forming the main constituent of soot.
1825 Philos. Mag. 66 291 Strong sulphuric acid, employed under similar circumstances, leaves, besides the graphite, black carbon easily combustible.
1889 Amer. Naturalist 23 1010 In this meteor were also found hydrocarbons and small grains of black carbon.
1934 Pop. Sci. Monthly Nov. 57/1 The zinc in burning combines with the carbon tetrachloride to form zinc chloride and particles of black carbon.
2009 Observer 4 Oct. 17/4 Soot from developing countries is a largely unappreciated cause of rising temperatures. Once the black carbon lands on glaciers, it absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected.
black caucus n. U.S. a political group or organization (often a sub-grouping of a larger body) composed of African-Americans and aiming to promote the interests of black people; spec. (with capital initial) (more fully Congressional Black Caucus) that composed of black members of Congress.
1964 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 29 233/1 A relatively new organization, the all-Negro Trade Union Leadership Council (TULC), constitutes a ‘black caucus’ of approximately 9,000 Negroes.
1971 Washington Post 20 May a13/1 The President's response to the congressional Black Caucus should stand as a comprehensive statement of ‘where we are at this moment.’
1989 B. Spock & M. Morgan Spock on Spock xiv. 173 The black caucus..absented themselves from the conference and effectively stalled it for two days while they formulated their ‘nonnegotiable demands’.
2003 B. McKibben Enough (2004) iv. 195 The endless meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus.
† black character n. Obs. = black letter n.
1659 Censures of Church Revived 221 This book, that is also printed in a large black Character, after the manner of the Statutes.
1751 Johnson Rambler No. 177. ⁋6 Books..printed in the black character.
1827 Eclectic Rev. Mar. 223 The MS. is a small quarto of vellum, in old French, finely written in the black character, and richly illuminated.
black chocolate n. chocolate made without the addition of milk; = dark chocolate n. at dark adj. Additions.
1902 Mansfield (Ohio) News 16 Oct. 8/3 (advt.) They [sc. Boston chocolate crackers] are a dainty little oval shaped sugar cracker, dipped in finest black chocolate.
2009 J. McGannon & M. McGannon Business Leader's Health Man. ii. 74 Black chocolate can thin your blood, like red wine or aspirin.
black church n. any church having a predominantly black congregation and leadership; (with the) such churches considered collectively as a religious and cultural entity.
1963 Chicago Defender 16 Nov. 9 The Birmingham police who purposely turned their backs while the white terrorists bombed black churches.
1971 B. Sidran Black Talk i. 23 The black church instigated the split between middle-class and poor blacks.
1992 Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N. Carolina) 2 July 3/1 The book documents the hymnological tradition of black churches in America.
2008 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 17 July 21/2 Secular leaders who had no interest in religion were nevertheless very much influenced by the black church's emphasis on the redemptive power of suffering.
black coat n. a person who wears a black coat as the typical dress of a particular occupation (see black-coated adj.); spec. a clergyman, a parson (depreciative).
1616 T. Granger Pauls Crowne of Reioycing 6 Many protestant Atheists, and Epicures..hate and deride the very name of a Preacher, and cannot looke on a blacke coate, (as these blacke mouthed hell-hounds terme them) with a patient eye.
1711 Swift Examiner No. 26. 165 He delights to have his Table filled with Black-Coats, whom he uses as if they were Gentlemen.
1818 Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian xiii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. IV. 300 You are the black-coat's son of Knocktarlitie.
1870 R. W. Emerson Society & Solitude ix. 197 The black-coats are good company only for black-coats.
1940 Archit. Rev. 87 110/1 Both these sorts of public house are essentially working class; the blackcoat's pub is another sort of place.
1995 S. S. Webb Lord Churchill's Coup (1998) ii. iv. 135 The red coats and the black coats were uniting against him.
black-coated adj. wearing or having a black coat; spec. designating a clerical or professional person as distinguished from one engaged in an industrial or commercial occupation; (hence) of or composed of persons engaged in such occupations.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. xxxix. 251 The blacke coated pompion.
1652 J. Ferriby Lawfull Preacher ii. 5 Those who thus labour in the Lord, and are thus highly to be esteemed, are not the Black-coated Ministers, Ordained by men, furnished with learning at the Universities.
1774 Satires on Priestcraft ii. 67 That brother not, like you devoted To ev'ry tyrant Priest black-coated.
1893 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 14 Apr. 506/1 The young fellow who will devote himself to agriculture..in New Zealand..may do even better than the youth who wins his way to the black-coated servitude of a bank.
1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase i. 12 He can't be a fisherman or anything of that kind; they don't waste time snoozing. Only the black-coated brigade does that.
1993 J. Pournelle & S. M. Stirling Prince of Sparta 99 Close to the ranch headquarters they saw black-coated Angus cattle.
black code n. chiefly U.S. (now hist.) any of various legal codes applied to black people; esp. each of the bodies of laws restricting the civil rights and liberties of black people that were enacted in the Southern United States following the Civil War.Quot. 1749 refers to the 1685 edict of Louis XIV of France later known as the Code Noir [after French code noir (1723 or earlier)] .
1749 M. Postlethwayt Diss. Universal Dict. Trade 22 The ordinance commonly called in the French islands of America, The Black Code, it containing the laws to be observed in respect to negroes.
1840 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 30 July 2/1 A black man..[will] be tried before Judge Preval, under the Black Code.
1876 Congress. Rec. 9 Aug. 5347/2, I hold in my hand the laws of the Legislature of South Carolina passed in the session of 1865–'66... Among the very first acts that they passed was the act which is known all over this country and all over the world as the ‘black code’ of South Carolina, a code that should disgrace every one of its authors.
1960 H. Carter in First Person Rural (1963) xvi. 154 South Africa's system of residential and occupational passes and other onerous restrictions upon the African's movements are little different from the Black Codes with which the fearful South of Reconstruction enmeshed the Negro freedman.
1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 6 Nov. 54/1 White Southerners set out to restore a racial oligarchy, bulwarked by the notorious ‘Black Codes’ that were close to slavery.
black coffee n. [compare French café noir (1808 or earlier)] coffee served without milk or cream.
1796Black coffee [see sense A. 2e].1818 C. I. Latrobe Jrnl. Visit S. Afr. v. 86 Some black coffee without milk, as is here the fashion, was handed round.
1867 S. W. Baker Nile Tributaries ix. 220, I..sat down..to good curry and rice, and a cup of black coffee.
1913 Lancet 29 Nov. 1563/2 Coffee is often made with a generous proportion of the powdered bean as in the case of after dinner ‘black’ coffee, the view being that the secret of good coffee is to make it strong.
1940 W. H. Auden Another Time 77 Kept awake with black coffee.
2003 Daily Tel. 8 Jan. 18/1 Taking a slug of black coffee and eating a doughnut.
black consciousness n. (freq. with capital initials) awareness of one's identity as a black person; spec. such awareness as a political and cultural means of seeking to unite black people in affirming their common identity and interests.
1935 N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 June 24/5 A program to create an international black consciousness through the medium of a world-wide organization.
1953 F. Henriques Family & Colour in Jamaica iii. 62 The current expositors of black consciousness in Jamaica are a group of people who call themselves Ras Tafarites.
1966 I. A. Baraka Home 241 Malcolm X's great contribution..was to preach Black Consciousness to the Black Man... Malcolm talked about a black consciousness that took its form from religion.
1991 Guardian 13 May 1/6 Supporters of the black consciousness movement, Azapo.
2005 Femina (S. Afr.) Feb. 53/1 Steve was the first president of the SA Student's Association, which he helped start in 1968 to raise black consciousness in the country.
† black cotton ground n. Obs. = black cotton soil n.
1804 Marquess of Wellesley Let. 12 Sept. in R. G. Burton Wellington’s Campaigns in India (1908) 167 The rain..rendered Monson's marches much more difficult than they would otherwise have been; particularly in that country, which is a black cotton ground.
1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 205/1 On the whole surface of the table-land [of the Deccan] a black soil prevails, which, from being favourable to the growth of cotton, has been called the black cotton ground, or regur.
1884 Gazetteer Bombay Presidency XXII. iv. 254 In this transition region the soil is generally a reddish alluvial clayslate crossed here and there..by narrow belts of black cotton ground.
black cotton soil n. a dark, rich alluvial soil found in the Deccan region of India, produced by the disintegration of black lava and suitable for cotton cultivation; = regur n.; (also) a dark muddy soil found in parts of Africa.
1814 B. Heyne Tracts on India xix. 309 The soil in the large plains is universally the black cotton soil, having a sub-soil of calcareous marl resting either on compact limestone or on clay slate.
1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iii. ii. 442 The ‘regur’, or rich black cotton soil of India.
1935 H. B. Thomas & R. Scott Uganda vii. 116 It is almost uncultivable and is known (quite erroneously since it will not grow cotton) as ‘black cotton soil’.
1960 M. Perham Lugard 1898–1945 iii. 51 The black cotton-soil plains of Bornu [Nigeria], flat dry land patched with thorn-scrub.
1991 Antiquity 65 796/2 The Deccan Chalcolithic was essentially a village culture which flourished in the region of the fertile black cotton soil.
2002 Trav. Afr. Winter 36/2 Not unless ploughing through black cotton soil quagmires or being eaten alive by mosquitoes and tsetse flies features high on your list of fun activities.
Black Country n. an area of the West Midlands of England which, esp. in the 19th cent., was blackened by the smoke and dust of the coal and iron trades there.
1834 J. C. Young Jrnl. 20 July in Mem. C. M. Young (1871) 325 In the densely-populated black country, with its smoke and blasts and furnaces.
1864 Daily Tel. 12 Dec., By night the Black Country blazes up lurid and red with fires which..are never extinguished.
1924 Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 29 Nov. 248/2 Some of the finest structural engineering in the world was done in the Black Country.
2006 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 5 Oct. 25/2 ‘So I got a ticket and I went’, Iqbal says flatly in his adenoidal Black Country accent.
black county n. U.S. a county in the southern United States in which the majority of the population is African-American.
1867 Chicago Tribune 1 Apr. 1/5 The chief trouble, however, will be in the black counties, where..the blacks are still under the tyrannical heels of their old masters.
1888 Congress. Rec. Sept. 8947/1 Justices of the peace in the black counties..converted their offices into engines of oppression to both races.
1969 Times 31 July 8/3 In the black counties of the deep south, the whites can feel threatened and beleaguered.
2004 Jet 13 Sept. 30/2 Developing one of the nation's more affluent Black counties.
black crop n. a non-cereal crop, esp. one of legumes, but also occas. one of roots or brassicas.
1795 G. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Mid-Lothian (new ed.) vii. 89 The dung forced the crop of wheat, and this succeeded by the black crop, which seldom failed to prosper, left the land in a fine heart for barley.
1889 J. Wrightson Fallow & Fodder Crops ix. 210 Vetches..may be allowed to stand until they ripen, and they are then classed with beans and peas as ‘black crops’.
1961 F. E. Shotton in Norwich & its Region (Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci.) 165/1 Wherever possible a cereal should follow a root or ‘black’ crop.
black damp n. Mining air that is unbreathable owing to a high content of carbon dioxide; = choke-damp n.; cf. damp n.1 1b.
1736 Lett. from Moor at London 11 Divers colliers ventur'd down at different times..but perceiving a black damp in the work.., were as often obliged to return.
1836 Scenes of Commerce 334 The miners..also meet with foul air, called by them the black damp..which suffocates the instant it is inhaled.
1914 Amer. Jrnl. Pharmacy 86 370 How does the admixture of black-damp modify the respirability of mine air?
1998 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 18 His own father had died from breathing in black damp as an oversman down the pit.
black disease n. Veterinary Med. = infectious necrotic hepatitis n. at infectious adj. Special uses.
1906 W. H. Hall Official Year Bk. New S. Wales 1904-5 282 The chief diseases of sheep recorded during the last ten years are anthrax, foot-rot, fluke, worms, and the black disease.
1918 Jrnl. Compar. Pathol. & Therapeutics 31 2 Two explanations of the origin of the term black disease are given, viz., (1) on account of the dark appearance of the liver of animals dead of the disease; (2) because of the dark colour assumed by the under surface of the skin.
1986 J. F. Gracey Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) xv. 317/1 Other clostridial diseases such as tetanus and black disease result from the elaboration of toxin in previously damaged tissue, e.g. a deep puncture wound in tetanus and a lesion caused by immature flukes in black disease.
black doctor n. a type of artificial fishing fly; cf. sense A. 6.
1883 Hand Bk. Gun, Fishing-rod & Tackle Requisites 23 Full dressed fancy salmon flies..Silver Doctor, Black Doctor, Butcher.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 22 Oct. 4/2 When..there is no possibility of catching a salmon except by that engine of death, the ‘Black Doctor’—the three big hooks tied back to back and dragged along the floor of a pool.
2006 C. Mann Featherwing & Hackle Flies for Salmon & Steelhead 21/1 The Black Doctor is another pattern that still finds a place in modern fishing.
black draught n. now hist. a purgative liquid medicine containing an infusion of senna and a variety of other ingredients (typically magnesium sulphate, liquorice, and herbs and spices); a dose of this; also fig.
1823 London Med. & Physical Jrnl. 50 321 In twelve hours from the first purgative he had three grains of calomel and six of James' powder; followed, in twelve hours, by a black draught.
1840 Thackeray Paris Sketch Bk. I. 166 Go enjoy your dull black draughts of metaphysics.
1861 A. K. H. Boyd Recreat. Country Parson 2nd Ser. 155 As if you gave a man a large jug of pure water, and then cast into it a few drops of black-draught.
1935 Lancet 14 Dec. 1345/1 My grandfather used a blue pill and a black draught which he called ‘a birch broom and a bucket of water’.
2003 D. A. E. Shephard Island Doctor iii. 38 Further treatment included an enema of salts, muriate of soda, oil of terebinth, and Black draught (a senna preparation).
black-dress n. now rare attrib. designating a convict who must wear a black uniform as a mark of misconduct.
1875 Sunday Mag. 745/1 The black dress men are now kept separate at work as well as elsewhere, and are only released and returned to the parties when they have given some proof of improvement.
1899 Daily News 3 July 5/6 The convict Billinge is what is known as a ‘Black dress’ man, being thus distinguished because of his bad conduct.
1913 T. Hopkins Wards of State i. iii. 54 The black-dress men have been flogged with the cat-o'-nine tails for an assault on a warder.
black drink n. N. Amer. a ceremonial drink of certain North American Indian peoples of the south-eastern United States, usually made from the leaves of the yaupon; cf. yapon n.
1772 D. Taitt in N. D. Mereness Trav. Amer. Colonies (1916) 503, I went this Morning to the Hot house and Stayed there about two hours smoking and drinking black drink.
1884 A. S. Gatschet Migration Legend Creek Indians I. i. iii. 183 The black drink was the symbol of purification from wickedness, of prowess in war and of friendship and hospitality.
1985 W. Brandon Indians (new ed.) viii. 222 The old ceremonies, the black drink, the busk or green-corn festival, the eternal games of chunkey and ball play, went on as ever.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees x. 246 The native people of the south-eastern United States make ‘black drink’ from the leaves of I. vomitoria.
black dwarf n. Astron. a star that is not luminous; spec. one resulting from the cooling of a white dwarf.
1929 R. H. Fowler Statist. Mech. xxi. 552 If such matter were removed by any cause from the interior of the black dwarf it could not then resume its ordinary state.
1933 Science 20 Jan. 71/2 Milne points out that we should have not only white dwarfs with degenerate cores, but still fainter orange and red dwarfs, stages of approach to the dead ‘black dwarf’.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. x. 284 Some black dwarfs come from featherweight stars.., stars that were not massive enough to begin hydrogen burning; others are cooled white dwarfs.
2002 K. Heusch tr. H. Fritzsch Curvature of Spacetime xiv. 185 Stars that are lighter, or even a bit heavier, than our Sun will be subject to a fate similar to that of the Sun: they will pass through a phase as white dwarfs, finally to end up as black dwarfs.
black earth n. †(a) a type of black pitch; = bitumen n. 1; (obs. rare) (b) soil or earth that is black; a rich, dark soil, spec. = chernozem n.; freq.attrib., designating regions characterized by such soils, esp. in Russia and in the southern United States (cf. black belt n. 2); cf. black soil n.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 613 Annoint his body..with Brimstone, and soft Idean Pitch, with wax, Hellibur, black-earth, or the flesh of shrimps.
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 113 Thin Vessels made of black earth, the which are pierced in the neck.
1799 W. Tooke View Russ. Empire I. i. ii. 72 On the Oby near Barnaul, the black earth does not indeed go very deep.
1842 Proc. Geol. Soc. 3 712 (title) On the Tchornoi Zem, or Black Earth of Central Russia.
1861 Rep. H.M. Secretaries No. 4 250 in Acts & Papers XXX (Parl. Papers LXIII), The ‘black-earth’ region, where the ‘obrok’ system prevails only as the exception.
1905 Athenæum 5 Aug. 175/1 The black-earth country of the south.
1935 J. S. Huxley & A. C. Haddon We Europeans vii. 198 The black-earth belt of Russia.
2000 Gardening Life Summer 22/2 Triple Mix... Three ingredients: compost (or composted manure), sphagnum peat moss and loam (or black earth).
2001 Independent 20 Mar. i. 15/2 The fertile Black Earth regions of the south also have a bad reputation for muddiness.
black economy n. (a) U.S. the economy of the black population of the United States (now rare); (b) that part of a country's economic activity which is not officially declared or reported to its government, esp. in order to evade taxation (cf. underground economy n. at underground adj. 4e,black market n., and see sense A. 15a).
1929 Polit. Sci. Q. 44 620 The dream of an independent black economy within white society suits the Negro better than a working-class movement which knows no color line.
1974 Times 24 Sept. (Internat. Scene section) p. ix/6 Fuelled by stagnant or declining industrial and agricultural production, deficit budgetary financing and the existence of a parallel ‘black’ economy (mainly the product of massive tax evasion), the general price level rose.
1978 Washington Post 18 Jan. a1 When placed against the statistics of blacks still in poverty, they indicate the disturbing quality of the black economy—a slow-growing black middle-class and an increasingly jobless lower economic class.
2002 Times 1 July 10/3 Ministers believe that ‘entitlement cards’ could have an important role to play in fighting illegal immigration, terrorism, benefit fraud and the black economy.
Black English n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) any of various distinctive forms of English used by black people; esp. =African American Vernacular English n. at African-American n. and adj. Special uses; see also British Black English n. at British adj. and n. Special uses 2.
1734 S.-Carolina Gaz. 30 Mar. 3/2 To be sold... Four young Negroe Men Slaves and a Girl, who..speak very good (Black-)English.
1919 C. M. Andrews Colonial Folkways vi. 150 Many of the slaves were African Negroes who spoke no English at all or only what was called ‘Black English’, and for that reason among others the Negro born in America always commanded a higher price in the market.
1968 W. Labov et al. Study of Non-Standard Eng. of Negro & Puerto Rican Speakers in NYC i. 278 The question must be posed to those..who see the actual performance of the ghetto youth as a deviation from some ideal, homogeneous Black English.
1973 Amer. Speech 43 30 The formal style used by a speaker of black English (referred to here as 'formal black English').
1978 Eng. Jrnl. Dec. 7/1 There are dozens of standard kinds of Black English, which vary from Detroit to Chicago to Mobile to Albuquerque.
2004 New Yorker 31 May 34/2 Black activists sometimes say that African-American kids need to become ‘bi-dialectic’—to speak both black English and standard English—to succeed.
Black English Vernacular n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) Linguistics = African American Vernacular English n. at African-American n. andadj. Special uses; abbreviated BEV.African American Vernacular English is now generally the preferred term.
1972 W. Labov Lang. in Inner City p. xiii, I will then refer to the black English vernacular (BEV) as that relatively uniform grammar found in its most consistent form in the speech of black youth from 8 to 19 years old who participate fully in the street culture of the inner cities.
2006 City Jrnl. (N.Y.) (Nexis) Fall, Pinker attacks the idea that the English of the ghetto, Black English Vernacular, is in any way inferior to standard English.
black fast n. chiefly R.C. Church a fast which includes abstinence from milk and eggs; cf. black fasting adj. at Special uses 4b.
1519 in A. M. Cooke Act Bk. Eccl. Court Whalley (1901) 67 Elizabetha..assereba[t] se velle perficere vnum Jeiunium vocatum, the blakffast, ad invodandam vindictam contra Edmundum Parker.
1577 R. Barnes Charge in Newcastle Tracts (1850) VI. 16 That no..superfluous faste be vsed as those called the Lady fast saint trinyons fast, the black faste.
1864 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 397/2 The Viceroy..puts the household one day every week on cold mutton, and makes Friday a black fast.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. 145 Their butteries and larders. I'd like to see them do the black fast Yom Kippur.
1977 T. Kilroy Talbot's Box (1979) 21 Sure it's only during Lent, doctor, he does the black fast.
2008 S. Heaney in D. O'Driscoll Stepping Stones ii. viii. 232 I'd been hearing about..people in earlier generations doing ‘the black fast’. Apparently they would walk the whole way to Donegal, keeping going on black tea and dry bread.
black-figure n. Archaeol. attrib. designating or relating to a type of Ancient Greek pottery ornamented with figures in black silhouette; (absol.) this type of pottery or ornamentation.
1867 C. Babington Catal. Select. Col. Leake's Greek Coins 29/2 See also a representation of one [sc. pointed amphora] (stuck in the ground) in a black-figure vase in Leake's collection.
1891 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 12 164 Small fragment of a black-figure cylix.
1930 J. D. Beazley in Proc. Brit. Acad. 14 217 (title) Attic Black-Figure.
1948 A. Lane Greek Pott. iii. 19 This orientalising phase of the seventh century saw also the introduction of polychrome painting and the ‘black figure’ technique, wherein black-painted silhouette figures were enriched with detail incised in the yet unfired clay.
1999 Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair: 1999 Handbk. 76/1 (caption) Greek neck amphora decorated in the black-figure style enlivened with purple and white,..circa 510 BC.
black-figured adj. Archaeol. designating or relating to Ancient Greek pottery ornamented in the black-figure style; see black-figure n.
1825 J. Christie Disquis. Painted Greek Vases 120 The Black-figured Vases rank next for antiquity and curiosity.
1890 M. de G. Verrall & J. E. Harrison Mythol. & Monuments Anc. Athens 432 It [sc. the vase] is of the finest early black-figured style, not later than the time of the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.
1993 D. S. Olson Confessions Aubrey Beardsley (1994) x. 202 Sketching everything I saw, from golden Byzantine madonnas..to black-figured satyrs dancing..across the curve of a kylix.
black flesh n. orig. U.S. (now hist.) slaves of African origin, considered as a commodity (cf. fleshmonger n. 3).
1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie I. viii. 125 The newspapers of Kentuck have called you a dealer in black flesh a hundred times, but little did they reckon that you drove the trade into white families.
1896 Fortn. Rev. July 9 The easeful leisure of certain cultured English men and women..is the result of their fathers' traffic in black flesh.
1968 Ebony Nov. 16/4 It was the Arab who showed the white man what a fortune could be made in black flesh.
2000 F. A. Nussbaum in V. Jones Women & Lit. in Brit., 1700–1800 iii. 69 Any Englishmen possessed the right to trade in black flesh.
black frost n. frost which does not have a white appearance; a deposit or occurrence of this; contrasted with white or hoar frost (cf. frost n. 2a); cf. black ice n.
a1425 (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Dan. iii. 69 Dewis and whijt forst [L. pruina], blesse ȝe the Lord... Blac forst [c1384 E.V. Byndynge frost; L. gelu] and coold, blesse ȝe the Lord.
1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus (new ed.) sig. Fijv, The greene blade that shooteth too earely is soone bitt with a black frost.
1756 L. Carter Diary 4 Nov. (1965) I. 131 The fine Rain yesterday was succeeded by..a hard black frost.
1842 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales II. 261 The hoar frost, and the black frost, hath done its work on Brother Adam and Sister Martha.
1996 Guardian 1 Feb. i. 14/7 Snow and black frosts in the Cheviots can decimate woodcock and snipe.
black gang n. now hist. a gang employed on work such as supplying or stoking a furnace with coal.
1862 M. Oliphant John Arnold xii. 187 He saw various groups of the black gang, of his own and kindred trades, hastening hither and thither, carrying tools.
1918 L. E. Ruggles Navy Explained 24 The engineer's division is always known as the ‘black gang’.
1923 R. D. Paine Comrades of Rolling Ocean iii. 44 There wasn't a smarter man in the black gang.
2000 P. W. B. Semmens & A. J. Goldfinch How Steam Locomotives really Work vii. 274 Refuelling tended to involve hard physical work by a ‘black gang’.
† black gentleman n. Obs. (with the) the devil; cf. gentleman n. 5a.
1685 G. Sinclair Satans Invisible World Discovered 7 The black Gentleman being present, (which was the name she gave the Devil).
1728 C. Cibber Vanbrugh's Provok'd Husband iv. i. 71 C. Bas. Well, the Devil fetch me... Myr. And may the Black Gentleman tuck me under his Arm at the same time.
1854 C. Lever Dodd Family Abroad I. xxii. 197 Those stories where people make compacts with the Devil, and always try to pose him by the terms of the bargain. In the present instance, I certainly got off easier than I should have done with the Black Gentleman.
black ginger n. ginger root which has not had the dark outer skin scraped away; cf. white ginger n. at white adj. Special uses 1b(b).
a1561 T. Vicary Surgions Directorie (1651) 258 Take..white and blacke Ginger, Sinamond, of each halfe a dram in fine-powder.
1707 London Gaz. No. 4319/3, With Annotto, lower'd to 8d. per lb. and Black Ginger to 15s. per C.
1887 C. A. Moloney Sketch Forestry W. Afr. 427 The coated or unscraped sort is similarly prepared, excepting that the rhizomes are unscraped; this is sometimes called Black Ginger.
1996 A. Greif in P. Dasgupta et al. Econ. Transnational Commons 267 The inferior black ginger that had..to be sent to another European country in the hope that it would be sold there.
black gold n. colloq. (orig. N. Amer.) petroleum; mineral oil.
1910 Sunset 25 173 (title) California's black gold: the romance of the oil gushers.
1969 Punch 19 Mar. 401/3 Tankers which leave the Gulf with 200,000 tons of black gold come to Milford Haven with nothing but a cargo of pullulating bacteria.
2003 New Internationalist Jan.–Feb. (Chronicle 2002 Suppl.) 7/2 Now near the top of the list of oil producers, Russia is increasingly dependent on its ‘black gold’ as a revenue-producer.
black gospel n. a style of gospel music performed by African-Americans, having characteristics influenced by both traditional spirituals and popular music.
1968 Ebony Sept. 100/2 This [sc. the impact of black culture] is most noticeable..in the music field where the influence of black gospel, jazz and rhythm & blues is pervasive.
1977 National Observer (U.S.) 22 Jan. 22/4 Is it country and western, or country-rock, or..Delta blues or black gospel, or what?
2010 Star-News (Wilmington, N. Carolina) (Nexis) 18 Feb. 1 d, He was mixing the influences of his time and his region of the country—church music, black gospel, blues, some of the jazzier stuff.
black gown n. (a) an academic; a learned person; (b) (chiefly among North American Indians) a Christian priest, esp. a Jesuit missionary (cf.Black Robe n.).
1616 T. Scot Philomythie xi. 79 The Flie and Flea having in Court got place... They thought since these..grew rich & braue They would as nimbly too..For many black gowns ther then ought..And thus resolu'd the Flea leaps up aloft.
1698 tr. L. Hennepin New Discov. in Amer. i. lxxiv. 296 A Mass of Requiem had been sung for me in the Monastery, because some Savages had given out for certain, to a Black Gown, i.e. a Jesuite, That the Nation whom the Iroquois call Hontouagaha, had hung me to a Tree with St. Francis's Rope.
1700 E. Ward Step to Stir-Bitch-Fair 12 We saw several Black Gowns pop in and out of the little Country-hovels, like so many Black Rabbits in a Warren, bolting out of their Coney-Burroughs.
1710 J. Toland Refl. Sacheverell's Serm. 12 That great Company of Black-Gowns, commanded in chief by..Doctor Lancaster.
1804 C. B. Brown tr. C. F. de Volney View Soil & Climate U.S.A. 409 This is as difficult to the black gowns as to ourselves.
1872 Amer. Naturalist 6 94 Everywhere among the western Indians the Jesuits were known by the name of Blackgowns.
1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood iii. 56 But think you our bannock-fed foot-sentinels care a doit for the black gowns at Westminster?
2000 tr. P. Lombard Vice & Virtue v. 57 Mazarin decided to serve His Holiness without joining the black gowns.
black growth n. U.S. (now hist. and rare) evergreen trees collectively; cf. blackwood n.1 2.
1815 in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. 2nd Ser. III. 121 The wood is chiefly black growth, viz. hemlock and spruce.
1913 J. Knowles Alone in Wilderness xiv. 215, I would pick the site of a camp in the open, under the shelter of spruce or cedar, or some other black-growth timber.
1995 Jrnl. Amer. Hist. 82 375/2, I grew up close to the center of New England forest..looking out over the hardwood ridges and intervales into the ‘black growth’ of the upland evergreens.
black heat n. a degree of heat or a temperature that is not sufficiently warm enough to produce visible light; cf. red heat n. 2; white heat n.
1800 W. Herschel in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 90 306, I therefore placed a poker, when of a proper black heat, at 12 inches from the steel mirror.
1888 Trans. Inst. Engineers & Shipbuilders Scotl. 31 91 A sheet of copper was brought to a black heat and allowed to cool gradually.
1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 81 199 The searing or docking iron must be at ‘black heat’, not red hot.
2005 C. McRaven Blacksmith's Craft iv. 78 For a blacksmith's finish on your tongs, heat to a black heat, which is just under darkest red, and dip into oil.
black helicopter n. and adj. U.S. (a) n. (in the context of various conspiracy theories) an unmarked, dark-coloured helicopter believed to be involved in sinister or covert activities, esp. relating to the establishment of a global government; (b) adj. (attrib.) of or relating to belief in conspiracies of this type (cf. tinfoil hat n. Compounds a).
1976 Havre (Montana) Daily News 2 July 2/6 There are numerous reports of unidentified flying objects... Black helicopters, unclaimed by any agency or firm, hover over the Montana countryside.
1987 K. Anderson Sympathy for Devil iii. 331 We love those black helicopters and all that spook stuff.
1994 J. Keith Black Helicopters over Amer. i. 18 We are able to first document sightings of the black helicopters beginning in August of 1971, in Lake County, Colorado.
1995 Boston Herald (Nexis) 7 May, The favorite conspiracy script of the right-wing ‘one world’ paranoiacs..can be loosely dubbed ‘the Black Helicopter Theory’.
1996 Economist 14 Dec. 53/2 Because of black-helicopter paranoia, this calm counsel will probably get lost in alarmism.
1998 E. Davis TechGnosis (1999) viii. 225 Thousands of otherwise ordinary citizens have reported run-ins with..black helicopters, chupacabras, and almond-eyed extraterrestrials armed with anal probes.
2010 M. Labash Fly Fishing with Darth Vader 237 He rubs turpentine in the wounds of black-helicopter types, saying that he believes in the United Nations so strongly.
black history n. (also with capital initial(s)) the history of black people, esp. as a subject of academic study.
1920 L. Stoddard Rising Tide of Color against White World-supremacy 88 The key-note of black history, like yellow history, has been isolation.
1969 Jrnl. Louisiana Hist. Assoc. 10 71 The history department of Southern University is planning to initiate a more intensified program in the study of ‘Black History’.
2008 National Parks Summer 59/3 This was his [sc. Carter G. Woodson's] library... This is where black history began.
black hood n. now hist. a non-regent member of the senate of the University of Cambridge, distinguished from a regent (regent n. 3a) by wearing a black hood; also attrib. in Black-hood House; cf. white-hood n. at white adj. Special uses 2h.Quot. 1763 appears to confuse regents with non-regents.
1763 Cantabrigia Depicta 21 The Vice-Chancellor's Chair is at the West End, and semicircular Seats on the Right and Left of it for the Heads, Noblemen, and Doctors: Below them sit the Regents, or Black-hoods, and at the East the Non-regents, or White-hoods.
1797 Cambr. Univ. Cal. 147 The Non-Regents or Black-hoods are those who have taken their master of arts' degree five years or upwards.
1805 Cambr. Univ. Cal. p. ii, All the rest constitute the Non-Regent of Lower House, otherwise called the Black Hood House, its members wearing black silk Hoods.
1859 N. & Q. 23 July 75/1 The white lining cannot with propriety be retained by those who so habited were admitted M.A., and have never become Non-regents or black hoods.
1926 M. R. James Eton & King's 111 Non-regents were the senior M.A.'s who were no longer under the obligation to lecture; in old times they constituted a separate House in the Senate—the Black-hood House.
Black Hundred n. (also Black Hundreds) now hist. a pro-tsarist counter-revolutionary movement characterized by extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism, formed during the Russian Revolution of 1905; supporters of this movement, considered collectively. [After Russian čërnaja sotnja (1905 in this sense) < čërnaja , feminine form of čërnyj black (see chernozem n.) + sotnja hundred (see sotnia n.).
The term čërnaja sotnja is attested in Old Russian from the 17th cent. in sense ‘urban communities of small tradesmen and craftsmen paying their taxes to the state’, where čërnaja referred to the state ownership of the occupied land and sotnja had the sense ‘urban community’. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, čërnaja sotnja was first applied to the radical pro-tsarist movement as a term of disparagement, with čërnaja reinterpreted in senses ‘evil’ and ‘ignorant’ and sotnja influenced by the sense ‘Cossack squadron’ (see sotnia n.). The term was quickly adopted by the movement itself (first by V. A. Gringmut in an article of 3 June 1906), with čërnaja reinterpreted as referring to ‘simple people’ (compare etymological note at narod n.).]
1905 Westm. Gaz. July 4/1 The Black Hundreds..are being organized for the purpose of simultaneous pogroms in thirty or forty towns.
1917 N.Y. Tribune 28 Mar. 1/2 From all parts of the empire I hear that the reformers are receiving heartening news except from Odessa, where the Black Hundred recently provoked considerable disorder.
1976 tr. S. Ettinger in H. H. Ben-Sasson Hist. Jewish People lvii. 887 The Union of the Russian People and the Black Hundreds organized mass ‘patriotic processions’ with portraits of the Tsar borne aloft.
2006 Slavic Rev. 65 316 He [sc. Kronshtadtskii] was an ardent supporter of tsardom, and after 1905 he became an honorary member of several Black Hundred organizations.
Black Indian n. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) (in the late 19th cent.) a person of African descent living as a member of a North American Indian community; (now also) a person of mixed African-American and North American Indian descent.
1876 Indian Jrnl. (Muskogee, Indian Territory) 14 Sept. 2/3 There is no reason why any bona fide member of the Cherokee or other Nation in the Territory, whatever may be his complexion, should not take a becoming part in its local politics... The Journal therefore urges red Indians, white Indians, and black Indians to fully post themselves upon their political rights.
1877 S. W. Marston Rep. 8 Nov. in E. C. Boudinot Oklahoma (1878) 55 Cherokees. Indians by blood..14,800. White Indians by marriage..700. Black Indians by treaty..3,500.
1979 N.Y. Mag. 17 Sept. 6/4 They're black Indians, they've intermarried so much... Their reservation is on Route 27A—the best property on Long Island.
1982 L. Bennett Before Mayflower 322 A number of black women married Indian braves. Of the two wives of Micanopy,..one was a black Indian.
1993 N.Y. Amsterdam News (Electronic ed.) 6 Nov. 18 When the local media understood that these were actually Black Indians claiming the lands, many began to let their racism toward both Native Americans and African-Americans surface overtly.
2008 R. Casement Black Hist. in Pages of Children's Lit. vii. 118 [The book] also contains many stories of Black Indians in the South, where many escaped slaves from coastal North Carolina and Georgia found a culture of acceptance with the Seminole Indians who lived in Florida.
black ice n. thin hard ice which is transparent and often difficult to see, esp. as deposited on a road in cold weather.
1827 W. Hone Table Bk. I. 75/2 Black ice is discovered between banks of snow, and ramified into numerous transverse, oblique, semicircular, or elliptical branches.
1922 C. S. Wright & R. E. Priestley Glaciol. x. 325 Large sheets of fresh ‘black’ ice a very few inches thick..had evidently formed between the floes.
1961 Guardian 28 Dec. 1/3 Roads in many places were covered with black ice which was hard to detect at night.
1999 A. Arensberg Incubus iii. ix. 98 The walk concealed a triple hazard: wet moss, patches of black ice, and bricks heaved askew by past frosts.
black Irish adj. and n. sometimes derogatory (a) adj. describing an Irish person, or one of Irish ancestry, having dark hair and a dark complexion or eyes; (b) n. (with pl. concord and the) such people collectively.
1875 Amer. Bibliopolist Dec. 260/1 The same usage still prevails among the vulgar as in the phrases, ‘black Irish’, ‘black Dutch’, describing certain well known types of Celts and Teutons (Hollanders, probably), differing widely from the prevailing type of either race in respect of their black eyes and hair, and gypsy-like, tawny complexions.
1888 R. Kipling Soldiers Three 84 Those are the Black Oirish an' 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name av Oireland.
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned v. 46 His fleshy hooked nose..suggested Jewish blood, but he claimed he was black Irish.
1962 Guardian 18 July 5/5 That haunted ‘Black Irish’ face [of Eugene O'Neill].
1970 K. Giles Death in Church vii. 177 Have you ever seen the black Irish?
1993 H. Gardner Creating Minds vii. 268 Martha turned out to be an even mix of the two parents, a stern indomitable Godfearing Puritan pioneer on one side, and on the other a wild tempestuous moody, dream-obsessed and quick-to-anger creature of the Black Irish persuasion.
black Jew n. a Jewish person who is dark-skinned or black, esp. (in Asia and Africa) as distinguished from one of European or Levantine ancestry; (also) = Falasha n.
1807 C. Buchanan Jrnl. 4 Feb. in Christian Res. in Asia (1811) 192 The resident Jews are divided into two classes, called the Jerusalem or White Jews; and the Ancient or Black Jews. The White Jews reside at this place [sc.Cochin]. The Black Jews have also a Synagogue here; but the great body of that tribe inhabit towns in the interior of the province.
1843 J. C. Maitland Lett. from Madras xviii. 178, I told him about the first preachers, the Black Jews, the Syrian Christians, &c.
1892 G. M. Rae Syrian Church in India x. 150 These black Jews are converts to the faith from among the people of the land.
1907 I. Zangwill Ghetto Comedies 155 The black Jews..surrounded by all those millions of Hindoos.
1964 Guardian 26 Mar. 16/4 The Falasha, the so-called Black Jews of Ethiopia.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 6 Dec. 53/3 The Malabari Jews who were known to the British as Black Jews; the Pardesi (foreign) or White Jews..and the Brown Jews, descendants of manumitted slaves who had been converted to Judaism.
2006 Canad. Jewish News (Nexis) 13 July 1 Operation Moses (1984-85) and Operation Solomon (1991) brought to Israel the Beta Israel, the black Jews of Ethiopia known pejoratively by their neighbours as Falashas (strangers or outsiders).
† black job n. slang Obs. a funeral.
1785 R. Cumberland Nat. Son iii. 41 We shou'd have had a terrible journey of it, if we had not luckily fallen in with a black job by the way, and kept company with the corpse to Exeter Cathedral.
1849 Thackeray Lett. (1887) 91 An expatriated parson..who gets his living by black jobs entirely and attends all the funerals of our country-men.
1876 W. P. Lennox Celebrities I. xii. 313 The ‘black job’ business.
Black Joke n. (also coal-black joke) (the name of) a tune used for popular songs and dances.In the 18th cent. the tune was freq. used for bawdy songs in whose refrain ‘black joke’ refers to the female genitals (see quot. 1796).
1729 C. Coffey Beggar's Wedding i. iv. 17 (heading) Hunter with Musick. Air X. Coal-black Joak.
c1734 in T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (O.H.S.) II. 463 His black Jokes or smutty Songs.
1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random II. liii. 186 He whistled one part and hummed another of Black Joke.
1796 Grose's Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 3) , Black Joke, a popular tune to a song, having for the burden, ‘Her black joke and belly so white’: figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable.
1808 S. W. Ryley Itinerant I. iv. 91 A blind fiddler, mounted on a three footed stool, rasped away very seriously the black Joke.
c1835 Oxford Freshman (song) , Next night I got drunker than ever, And sang the Black Joke at his [my Tutor's] door.
1970 P. O'Brian Master & Commander (new ed.) ix. 252 He decided..to sit it out until the drum beat to quarters,..humming the Black Joke.
2009 C. Bartram Eng. Fiddle 53 The Black Joke has been around for some hundreds of years. Many latter-day English musicians associate the tune with the morris dance.
black knight n. Business slang a person or company making an unwelcome takeover bid; cf. white knight n. (b) at white adj. Special uses 1e.
1978 Newsweek 16 Oct. 88/1 ‘White knights’ rush to rescue ‘sleeping beauties’ from ‘black knights’... So goes the lingo in what is fast becoming Wall Street's hottest game, the merger-and-acquisition business.
1988 Economist 29 Oct. 98/2 Unsolicited offers have become common. KKR is one of the most aggressive ‘black knights’.
2010 H. Bierman Introd. Accounting & Managerial Finance 304 A corporation..finding that it was being pursued by an undesirable suitor (a black knight) would arrange to buy the shares held by the black knight at a premium.
black knot n. (a) Irish English a knot which is difficult to undo (now rare); (b) a fungal disease of fruit trees characterized by the formation of irregularly shaped rough black swellings on the bark; (also, more fully black knot fungus) any of several fungi causing this disease, esp. Dibotryon morbosum, chiefly affecting plum and cherry trees.
1840 Irish Penny Jrnl. 14 Nov. 155/1 His tail bein' very long, gave a twitch an' hitched itself in a black knot round the chap's body, and so towed him across the river.
1846 Cultivator July 222/2 The black knot on the plum tree, is also cured in the same way.
1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 252 Sphæria mortosa, ‘Black knot’ fungus.
1905 J. M. Synge Shadow of Glen & Riders to Sea 50 Give me a knife, Nora, the string's perished with the salt water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't loosen in a week.
1915 Board Agric. & Fisheries Leaflet No. 213, Gooseberry Black-knot (Plowrightia ribesia, Sacc.).
1990 National Gardening May 12/3 The growth is black knot fungus... Remove the black knots on the smaller limbs by pruning out infected branches.
2004 G. A. Hammerson Connecticut Wildlife 156/1 (caption) Black knot is a fungal parasite commonly afflicting native cherries.
black latten n. = latten-brass n. at latten n. 3b.
1545 Rates Custome House sig. a.iiiiv, Blacke latten rolles the c. pound xx.s.
1660 Act 12 Chas. II c. 4 Sched. Rates Inwards, Lattin vocant blacke Lattin the hundred weight..ij li. shaven Lattin..iij li. vj s. viij d.
1763 R. Dodsley Preceptor (ed. 4) II. 436 Black Latten is Metal prepared for Clock-work, Jacks, Engines.
1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs ii. 107 Shaven Latten is distinguished from Black Latten by its thinness, and brightness on both sides of the sheets.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 223/1 Black latten is brass in milled sheets, composed of copper and zinc, used by braziers, and for drawing into wire.
2005 N. Shopland Archaeol. Finds i. 21 There are three forms of latten: black latten which is usually unpolished; shaven latten which is generally very thin, and roll latten.
black level n. Television the level of the picture signal that corresponds to black in the transmitted picture.
1935 Proc. IRE 23 1457 This provides a black-white ratio of at least 3 to 1 and a black level high enough to eliminate noise pickup troubles.
1982 J. Goldberg Fund. Television Servicing i. 5 Television standards identify a white level and a black level of picture information.
2002 Sound & Vision May 83/2 Both the black level and grayscale will drift as it warms up.
black light n. (a) light supposed to be able to pass through objects that are opaque to the eye (now hist.); (b) light (electromagnetic radiation) with a wavelength just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum; ultraviolet light.
1896 G. Le Bon in Philos. Mag. 41 236 As they are invisible to the eye, I give the name of black light to those radiations of unknown origin which pass in this way through opaque bodies.
1913 C. S. Page Sci. Physical Phenomena v. 227 The ultra-violet are discernible not only by the blackening of silver salts but by their heat. It is a spectrum of black light having a velocity..less than that of violet.
1933 Trans. Illumin. Engin. Soc. 28 618 The ‘black bulb’ ultraviolet lamp..can be easily concealed..projecting invisible radiations of ‘black light’ on to luminous designs painted on the walls.
1957 Encycl. Brit. IX. 426 d Plate 1 (caption) Photograph of white girl made in the dark by black light.
1999 H. Kragh Quantum Generations (2002) 453 The pseudodiscoveries of black light and N-rays.
2009 Time Out N.Y. 26 Feb. 51/4 Dress code: ‘glow-wear black-light reactive or underwater-themed outfits’.
black liquor n. (a) any of various black liquids used in dyeing; spec. a solution of lead acetate used as a mordant; also called iron liquor; (nowrare); (b) a liquid residue containing lignin compounds and inorganic chemicals, formed when pulpwood is heated in alkaline solution in the kraft papermaking process.
1705 tr. Whole Art Dying 259 From this mixture the Black Liquor, a Body of a new Figure, is produced.
1860 C. O'Neill Chem. Calico Printing x. 101 An impure solution of acetate of iron is made by digesting metallic iron with crude pyroligneous acid for some weeks; it has a black colour, and is known in trade as iron liquor and black liquor.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 702/1 The iron mordant which gives the best results is known as ‘black liquor’.
1935 Sewage Wks. Jrnl. 7 288 (heading) The toxic effects of waste sulphate liquor (black liquor) on fish.
2007 Wall St. Jrnl. 12 Feb. r4/3 Weyerhaeuser, for example, makes electricity..by burning hog fuel, or wood waste, and black liquor, a pulp-mill byproduct.
black literature n. †(a) literature printed in black letter (obs. rare); (b) literature written by black people, esp. as a subject of academic study.
1797 Monthly Rev. 22 345 Multitudinous porers in black literature.
1958 Kongo-overzee 24 71 The Editors are the poet Janheinz Jahn and the Africanist Ulli Beier, assisted by an editorial board which will be representative of the entire domain of black literature.
1976 A. Walker in In Search of Mothers' Gardens (1983) 288 At black literature conferences it would be examined fleetingly, if at all, in light of this ‘traitorous’ union.
2009 J. V. Gabbin Shaping Memories 56 Students there were now clamoring for courses in black literature.
black lung n. the disease anthracosis; also black lung disease.
1837 W. Thomson in Medico-chirurg. Trans. 20 243 The symptoms, towards the termination of the case, being more those of chronic bronchitis than of black lung.
1969 Newsweek 16 June 44/2 The dread black-lung disease..annually disables thousands of miners.
2009 Wire Jan. 53/4 Workman was a coal miner..in West Virginia who was forced to retire after 42 years in the mines due to black lung and a slipped disc.
black magic n. [compare French magie noire (1630)] magic involving the invocation of evil spirits; harmful or malevolent magic; cf. white magicat white adj. 7b.
1590 Spenser Faerie Queene iii. xi. 564 For he the tyrant, which her hath in ward By strong enchauntments and blacke Magicke leare, Hath in a dungeon deepe her close embard, And many dreadfull feends hath pointed to her gard.
1635 T. Heywood Hierarchie Blessed Angells vii. 469 Some diuide this abstruse Art into Theurgia, White Magicke, and Goetia, Blacke Magicke, or the Blacke Art, otherwise called Necromantia.
1711 tr. L. Bordelon Hist. Ridiculous Extravagancies Monsieur Oufle ii. viii. 234 By a Black Magic, or the Black Art,..we are to understand, whatever Men perform by Diabolical Assistance.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 125 What with slavery and what with black-magic, life is precarious among the Wakhutu.
1989 Times 21 Feb. 36/2 H also claimed to be in fear of Mr Emode's black-magic powers.
2002 Evening Standard 28 May 15/2 Each year hundreds of people become victims of human sacrifices at the hands of witch doctors or their followers in Africa and their body parts are used for black magic.
black malt n. malted barley which has been roasted until it is very dark.
1628 in M. Cash Devon Inventories 16th & 17th Cent. (Devon & Cornwall Record Soc.) (1966) New Ser. 11 40 In the Maulte House and Chamber over: the blacke mault and barley mault.
1829 D. Booth Art of Brewing ii. vii. 51/1 Some of the principal brewers have never used black malt.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 95 According to the colour and the degree of drying, malt is distributed into three sorts; pale, yellow, and brown... The black malt used by the porter brewer..is partially charred.
1994 Ale St. News Apr.–May 15/2 Grains used in Doppelbock are pale Munich, dark Munich, black malt, carapils and dextrin.
† black matins n. Obs. rare (at Christ Church, Oxford) the college matins, at which black academic gowns are worn (distinguished from the cathedral matins, at which white surplices are worn).
1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 305 If you're fond of fun, old fellow, jump up and view the Christ Church men proceeding to black matins this morning.
black metal n. a type of heavy metal music typically characterized by a fast tempo, heavily distorted guitars, shrieked vocals, and a lyrical preoccupation with evil and suffering, often with references to the occult or Satanism.
1982 ‘Venom’ (title of album) Black Metal.
1984 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 22 Dec., There is a new breed coming out which call themselves black metal... They label themselves as satanic.
1996 Herald (Rock Hill, S. Carolina) (Nexis) 12 Apr. 7 d, Their style of choice is black metal, a faster, more atmospheric form of death metal, though equally as bludgeoning.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 1 June ii. 3/1 When the band split up in 2001, its status as black metal's foremost artisans stood uncontested.
black movement n. (also with capital initial(s)) the African-American civil rights movement; cf. civil rights movement n. at civil right n.Compounds.
1965 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 18 Apr. 32 The white American reaction is just now starting to build against the black movement's use of civil disobedience, threats and coercion to gain their ends.
1973 Black World Dec. 12/1 The various ‘lib’ movements, therefore, are white derivatives of the Black movement.
2000 M. P. Levine in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 351 The black movement effectively ended legalized discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
Black Museum n. colloq. the Crime Museum of the Metropolitan Police in London, consisting of exhibits connected with crimes of the past.
1877 Observer 8 Apr. 3/3 The building is, indeed, as it is called, a Black Museum, for it is associated with whatever is darkest in human nature.
1902 A. Griffiths Myst. Police & Crime III. xxxiii. 124 Some very beautiful implements are now exhibited in the Black Museum of New Scotland Yard... Amongst these..are some of the tools used by the notorious Charles Peace.
1997 P. D. James Certain Justice (2007) iv. 424 She remembered a visit paid a year ago to the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, the high shelf with the rows of death masks—only they had been death heads—of executed criminals.
Black Muslim adj. and n. (a) adj. of or relating to the Nation of Islam movement (see Nation of Islam n.); (b) n. a member of the Nation of Islam.
1960 San Francisco News-Call Bull. 11 Oct. 4/2 Black Muslim leaders concede there are many ex-convicts, former prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics in the movement, but they put a different interpretation on this than the police.
1961 C. E. Lincoln Black Muslims in Amer. p. iv, The racial emphases peculiar to this rapidly growing, Chicago-centred movement suggested the descriptive phrase ‘Black Muslims’, which I coined in 1956... Theretofore they had been variously known as the ‘Temple People’, ‘the Muhammadans’, ‘the Muslims’, ‘the Voodoo Cult’ and ‘the Nation of Islam’.
1964 Punch 1 Apr. 505/1 Black Muslim claims to an African heritage.
1992 Newsweek 16 Nov. 74/1 He went by many names: born Malcolm Little; dubbed Red,..then Malcolm X, his Black Muslim name, and finally, after his break with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, he called himself El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
2006 J. Updike Terrorist ii. 100 The Black Muslims of New Prospect, and the apostate adherents of the Nation of Islam, keep to their own lofts and storefront sanctuaries.
Black Nationalism n. chiefly U.S. a movement advocating unity among black people, separatism from white people, and political self-determination, esp. in the form of a separate black nation.
1962 E. U. Essien-Udom (title) Black nationalism: a search for identity in America.
1963 N.Y. Times 23 Apr. 2/1 A new assertive mood, characterized by some Negro leaders as ‘Black Nationalism’ is spreading throughout the United States.
1977 Washington Post 11 Jan. a1 It is failing to provide the Afrikaners with a ‘moral alternative’ to the use of force in containing black nationalism.
1997 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville) 7 May b5/5 Unknown to most whites, Moore was a hero in Harlem and an elder stateswoman of black nationalism.
Black Nationalist n. and adj. (a) n. an advocate of self-determination for black people; spec. a supporter of Black Nationalism; (b) adj. of or relating to Black Nationalism.
1943 R. Ottley New World A-Coming viii. 105 Here, at long last, was some sort of tangible idealism..around which the black nationalist could rally, and indeed rally a great section of the black population.
1958 Cape Times 22 Dec. 12/7 What is the origin of the Africanists, the extreme Black nationalist group which recently broke away from the African National Congress?
1963 Life 24 May 4/2 The Negro's feeling that the white man's law has failed him is polarized by extreme black nationalists.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia II. 1093/1 The Black Muslims..are a quasi-religious black nationalist organization among Afro-Americans.
1992 Harper's Mag. Dec. 65/2 While black nationalist and separatist ideas coming from Elijah Mohammed seemed cranky, cult-like, backwaterish, and marginal, the same ideas coming from Malcolm seemed revolutionary, hip, and vibrant.
1999 K. A. Appiah & H. L. Gates Africana 492/3 Many early black Communist recruits, at least in the urban North, were former Garveyites and black nationalists of various stripes.
blacknob n. Sc. (depreciative) (now rare) a blackleg, a strike-breaker; = blackneb n. 3, nob n.4
1838 Times 16 Jan. 6/3 A man on the opposite side called out ‘Don't give it to him, he is a nob.’ Another beside him said ‘He is a black nob.’
1874 Scotsman 18 Mar. 5/5 All the men employed by the iron companies were on strike, with the exception of six ‘blacknobs’.
1890 J. S. Farmer & W. E. Henley Slang I. 218/1 Black-nob, a non-unionist; one who, while his fellows are on strike, persists in working at his trade.
1921 W. R. Browne What's What in Labor Movement 34 An earlier term with the same connotations as ‘blackleg’ is ‘knobstick’,..and these two terms have evidently been combined to produce ‘blacknob’, another not uncommon variant.
black oil n. (a) any of various dark-coloured oils; (in later use) spec. a heavy mineral oil used for lubrication and fuel; (b) oil obtained from the blubber of the black or right whale (genus Balaena).
1576 G. Baker tr. C. Gesner Newe Jewell of Health iii. f. 136, The blacke oyle is of great vertue in the ioynt sicknesse, euen lyke to a baulme.
1651 J. French tr. J. R. Glauber Descr. New Philos. Furnaces ii. 56 Then take out your Retort together with the black oyle, and pour upon it the Volatile spirit.
1790 Scots Mag. Dec. 586/1 He was aware that the black oil was comparatively of little value.
1832 Schoolmaster 6 Oct. 156/2 Black oil sells only at about half the price of the sperm oil.
1896 B. Redwood Treat. Petroleum II. ix. 532 Lubricating Oils..‘pale’ oils..‘black’ oils..‘compound’ oils.
1904 G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 54/1 Black oils, mineral oils which have not been chemically purified.
1949 Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) (ed. 2) 325 (Gloss.), Black Oils, a general term applied to the heavier and darker coloured petroleum products such as heavy diesel fuel, fuel oil and some cylinder stocks.
1954 C. R. Straubel in Whaling Jrnl. Capt. W. B. Rhodes p. xvi, The oil of black whales was usually called ‘black oil’, not because the oil was black, but because of the colour of the whales producing it.
2007 Hydrocarbon Processing (Nexis) Feb., Demand for white-oil products (gasoline and diesel) is increasing at an all-time high, while the demand for black-oil products such as fuel oil is declining.
black op n. Mil. (orig. and chiefly U.S.) (freq. in pl.) a secret or covert operation, esp. one conducted outside ordinary channels of command and accountability; also in extended use; cf. sense A. 15b.
1980 D. Freed Spymaster 374 The truth was that whatever the KBG was up to, it was Scott and the DOD that were running illegal Black ops into the United States from all over the perimeter of Central America.
1998 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 26 Oct. e4 A former ‘black op’ man and Contra trainer for the CIA, he has become a peace worker.
2004 K. Tinsley Stonehaven 209 Corporations..tap into this resource for deniable industrial ‘black ops’.
black opal n. a very dark variety of opal; a piece of such opal.
[1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica 298 We sometimes meet with blackish Opals, which shew no other Colour in any Light, only the Red.]
1771 J. Hill Fossils 201 (table) Black opal.
1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 777/2 The so-called ‘black opals’..consist of this matrix [of dark brown ironstone] penetrated in all directions by veins and spots of opal.
1948 R. M. Pearl Pop. Gemology v. 228 The tendency of black opal..to be deposited in very thin seams makes it often necessary to include a piece of the country rock..to provide a substantial support.
1996 J. T. Hospital Oyster (1997) 357 Lightning Ridge is where the serious deals are, and besides, they know black opal when they see it.
black pepper n. [after classical Latin piper nigrum; compare Old French, Middle French, French poivre noir (c1280)] peppercorns which have been harvested while still unripe, esp. dried and used either whole or ground as a spice and condiment.Also (in quot. ?a1425 ): the berry of the pepper plant ( Piper nigrum).
eOE Bald's Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) ii. xxxii. 234 Wyrc him sealfe þus wiþ wambe coþum, of cwicum swefle & of blacum pipore.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. viii. 1278 Many þinges beþ of oon coloure wiþoute and of oþer colour wiþinne, as it fareþ in blak peper.
?a1425 (▸c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 112 And there is iij maner of peper alle vpon o tree: Long peper, blak peper, & white peper.
1539 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) ii. x. 27 Blacke pepper is hottest, and most dry, white pepper is next, long pepper is moste temperate.
1652 J. Wadsworth tr. Colmenero de Ledesma Chocolate 14 Some doe put into it [sc. chocolate] black Pepper, and also Tauasco.
1769 E. Raffald Experienced Eng. House-keeper 323 Half an Ounce of Black Pepper, the same of Long Pepper, and Ginger.
1846 ‘J. Montefiore’ Jewish Man. 4 Pour in a wine-glass of port wine, half an ounce of black pepper, a little mace, four spoonsful of ketchup or Harvey's sauce, a little salt, and the peel of a lemon grated.
1922 A. Jekyll Kitchen Ess. 179 Hard-boiled eggs accompanied by..a small wisp of oriental salt, or Cerebos, mixed with coarsely-ground black pepper for each traveller.
1964 G. C. Booth Food & Drink Mexico 55 Mix an adobo of one half teaspoon black pepper, one quarter teaspoon cumin, one quarter teaspoon salt and three tablespoons vinegar. Rub the ribs with the adobo.
2004 Delicious June 21/2 Slice the tomatoes and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
black plate n. Metall. rolled iron or steel as a raw material for tinplate making; a sheet of this.
1701 Exact Abridgm. All Statutes King William 76 For every hundred of single white or black Plates, 4 s. 4 d. and so in proportion.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products, Black plates,..thin sheets of iron not coated with tin.
1962 Engineering 16 Mar. 372/1 Continuous annealing of blackplate has been made more than ten times faster.
1996 H. E. Hough Purchasing for Manufacturing vi. 77 The principal noncoated tin product is called black plate and is simply flat rolled steel.
black pod n. an economically significant disease of the cocoa tree caused by various fungal pathogens of the genus Phytophthora, in which the pods become discoloured and necrotic; also black pod disease.
1904 Bull. Misc. Information (Trinidad Bot. Dept.) Apr. 69 In the year 1898, the Cacao pod rot known as ‘Black pod’ or black Cacao, was very prevalent on Cacao estates.
1953 Economist 19 Dec. 917/1 The outlook for the Nigerian [cocoa] crop is uncertain... The poor weather..increases the risk of black pod disease.
2006 Observer 28 May (Food Monthly) 26/1 These trees have been bred so they are not susceptible to black pod.
black pope n. [so called from the colour of his vestments, in contrast with those of the Pope, which are typically or predominantly white] colloq.the Superior General of the Jesuits.
1851 P. Connelly Cases of Conscience i. 2 The white Pontiff of the Vatican became a pageant; the black Pope of the Gesù was the real successor of the canonized Hildebrands and Ghisleris.
1873 Times 30 May 8/1 The only practical result has been an almost unanimous vote by which the General of the Jesuits, Father Becks—the ‘Black Pope’ as he is called—will be instantly..turned out of the apartments.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 339/2 It is said that the general of the Jesuits is independent of the pope; and his popular name, ‘the black pope’, has gone to confirm this idea.
2006 G. Vidal Point to Point Navigation xxx. 157 The ‘Black Pope’ is the name given the head of the Jesuit order, an order usually at delicate odds with whomever occupies the See of Peter.
black powder n. gunpowder.
1793 tr. H. Le Maire French Gil Blas IV. viii. 185 The chief appeared astonished at the skill of Philips, and the terrible effect of the black powder, which when enclosed in a narrow space, can produce such extraordinary and violent explosions.
1892 W. W. Greener Breech-loader 124 The butt of the gun being forty yards..from the target, the load being 3 drams of black powder.
1971 C. J. White Introd. Coal Mining Industry v. 37 Crude methods of blasting meant the ignition of black powder by time fuse.
2005 New Yorker 12 Dec. 80/1 Robbie loaded his Hawken musket with eighty-five grains of black powder.
black process n. Photogr. now rare a process by which black and white photographic prints or black and white copies are produced; freq. attrib.in black-process paper.
1853 Notes & Queries 26 Mar. 315/2 The chloride of barium will often produce black images, though very uncertain; and the black process as given by Le Gray is uncertain also.
1899 Mechanic Arts Mag. May 179/1 There is a black process paper, which is now coming a good deal into use... When making blackprints put strips of black process paper in your small frame.
1903 S. S. Leach Rep. Operations 1st Battalion Engineers 78 Tracing linen... Blue print paper... Black process paper.
1909 Workshop Receipts (new ed.) I. 418/2 A black process, which will compete for favour with the above blue process, is given in the Photocopie of A. Fisch.
1920 R. McGarraugh Mine Bookkeeping iv. 25 Forms ruled by hand or printed upon black-process paper.
black propaganda n. falsified or unacknowledgeable propaganda, esp. that purporting to come from an enemy's own sources, and designed to lower morale; cf. disinformation n. a.
1856 Eclectic Rev. Aug. 156 This circumstance was eagerly taken advantage of by the Black Propaganda.
1893 C. G. Leland tr. H. Heine Wks. VII. 366 This black propaganda endeavours to destroy fundamentally the fair fame of those who are now in power, that is to say, of the King.
1962 Guardian 16 Nov. 7/5 The ‘black’ propaganda of ‘Lord Haw-Haw’.
1972 F. Fitzgerald Fire in Lake iii. 76 Their tactics were promises and ‘black propaganda’, or the falsification of enemy reports.
2006 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) July 95/1 An astoundingly effective campaign of disinformation, or black propaganda, which led..the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein's nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States.
black Protestant n. (also with capital initial in the first element) (a) (a descendant of) a Protestant settler in Ireland at the time of the Cromwellian Settlement of 1652 (cf. Cromwellian n.); (b) derogatory and offensive a staunch Irish Protestant, esp. one characterized as intolerant or bigoted; also used as a more general term of abuse for an Irish Protestant.
1829 A. M. Hall Sketches Irish Char. I. 139 Ould James Corish, though suspicted o' being a black Protestant (I ax pardon; but that was what they were called), was well counted by all his neighbours.
1899 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. (1901) i. 7 They were ‘Black Protestants’, all of them, in virtue of their descent from a godly soldier of Cromwell.
1958 Furrow 9 92 Catholics have always known the difference between the ‘decent’ and the ‘black’ Protestant.
1970 Irish University Rev. 1 93 A bloody villain of a land-grabber, and a black Protestant to boot, was trying to throw a lonely, helpless..widow-woman out on the side of the road to die.
1984 Field 6 Oct. 73/2 The original Townshend was one of these ‘Cromwellites’ or ‘Black Protestants’.
2007 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 3 Aug. 21 They call him a black Protestant and yell that such should not be allowed on to a GAA pitch.
black quarter n. the disease blackleg (sense 1a), esp. in cattle; also called quarter evil, quarter ill.
1768 C. Varlo Mod. Farmers Guide II. xxxvii. 367 (heading) To prevent the Black-legg, or Black-quarter in Calves or Lambs.
1834 W. Youatt Cattle xi. 356 Inflammatory fever..is termed black quarter, quarter evil, [etc.].
1986 J. F. Gracey Meat Hygiene (ed. 8) xv. 318/1 These post-mortem changes of the liver and kidneys are responsible for the ‘foaming organs’ of blackquarter.
black rain n. (in sing. and pl.) rain that is exceptionally dark, dense, or dirty; (fig.) the radioactive rain that followed the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
1772 Crit. Rev. June 428 The vapours, fogs, and rains with which the atmosphere of London is loaded, drag with them in their fall the heaviest particles of the smoke: this forms black rains.
1820 Shelley Ode to West Wind ii, in Prometheus Unbound 190 From whose solid atmosphere Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst.
1867 Sailors' Mag. & Seamen's Friend Feb. 164/2 In Scotland, these black rains have been frequently noticed.
1946 (title of film) White light black rain. [With reference to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.]
1979 P. White Let. 4 Mar. (1994) xiv. 518 We are going through awful days of humidity, and now two whole days of black rain as the result of a cyclone up north.
1991 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 7/3 Newspaper and television reports depict clouds so dense that car headlights must be turned on at midday and ‘black rain’ that coats crops, water supplies and all else with soot.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Aug. d2/2 The day after the A-bomb, my father went into Hiroshima to search for his mother and siblings. My father was exposed to the radioactive ‘black rain’.
black rent n. now hist. (esp. in the border regions of Ireland and Scotland) a payment or tribute exacted in return for protection from plunder; cf.blackmail n. 1.
1423–4 Rolls of Parl.: Henry VI (Electronic ed.) Parl. Oct. 1423 §9. m. 1, The erle of Ormond..set his lordship of Oghtryn in the countee of Kildare, to bere tribute and blakrente to the somme of .xij. marc, to be paied to the wyf of Calagh Oconqore Irissh enemy..that the same Calagh..shulde do no harme..to the tenauntz of the said lordship.
1533 Cal. Carew MSS (Rolls Ser.) No. 39, The black rents and tributes which Irishmen by violence have obtained of the King's subjects.
1612 J. Davies Discov. Causes Ireland 200 The Borders and Marches..were growne vnruly,..being subiect to Blacke-Rents and Tribute of the Irish.
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. xviii. 718 The inhabitants..were hardly distinguishable from the Irish, and paid them a tribute, called black-rent.
2005 D. Gabaldon Breath of Snow & Ashes 297 Organized bands of armed men..rode the country, charging fees from the Highland chiefs to protect tenants, land, and cattle—and if the black rent they charged was not paid, promptly seizing goods and cattle themselves.
Black Republican n. U.S. (now hist.) a member of the Republican Party of the United States, characterized (esp. amongst Democrats) as an abolitionist or advocate of black civil rights.
1854 Sheboygan Lake (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 16 Aug., The ‘Black Republicans’.—The mongrel Convention of Abolitionists, Free Soilers, Whigs, Political Clergymen, and Fugitive Slaves.
1866 Chambers's Encycl. (at cited word), The Whig party..adopted the name of Republicans, and were called by their opponents Black Republicans, from their anti-slavery tendencies.
1929 L. W. Reese Victorian Village 121 Confederate and Federal men, statesrighters and black Republicans might froth and rave about them.
2000 M. Sinha Counterrevolution of Slavery vi. 174 Etheridge's moral condemnation of the foreign slave trade clearly reflected a minority position in the slave South. A year later, he had to fight against being branded a free soiler and a Black Republican.
Black Robe n. Canad. (now hist.) (among North American Indians) a Christian priest, esp. a missionary; cf. black gown n. (b).
1811 J. Black tr. A. von Humboldt Polit. Ess. New Spain I. 116 The Canadian savages call themselves Metoktheniakes, born of the sun, without allowing themselves to be persuaded of the contrary by the black robes, a name which they give to missionaries.
1840 N. P. Willis Canad. Scenery I. 24 They exhorted her to take it into the woods, where the blackrobes, as they called the Christian priests, would not be able to find her.
1907 J. W. Schultz My Life as Indian xvii. 189 ‘I will pray to those gods for you. Long ago..a Blackrobe..taught me the way,’ and she began... 'Twas the Lord's prayer!
1990 R. Graham God's Dominion i. 28 Though they [sc. the Indians] sensed that the Black Robes undervalued the world of nature for the world beyond—most evident in the white man's klutziness as hunter and explorer—they were impressed by the magic of clocks and writing.
black root rot n. any of various plant diseases characterized black lesions on roots; spec. a disease of tobacco and other plants caused by the fungus Thielaviopsis basicola.
1901 Progress Beet-sugar Industry U.S. 1900 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 55 The fields of sugar beets during the past two or three seasons have been very much affected with what is termed ‘black root rot’.
1954 A. G. L. Hellyer Encycl. Garden Work 208/2 Black root rot..is found most commonly on peas, violas and violets.
2002 Aiken (S. Carolina) Standard 31 Jan. 6 b/4 Black root rot usually makes its presence known soon after fall planting.
black rot n. †(a) a disease of sheep (perh. hepatic fascioliasis or black disease) (obs.); (b) any of various (typically fungal or bacterial) diseases of plants characterized by decay and black or dark brown discoloration of tissues, esp. that caused by the fungus Guignardia bidwellii in vines of the family Vitaceae.
1769 Lloyd's Evening Post 5–8 May 438/3 Belfast, April 29. An infallible cure for the disorder in horned cattle, called the Big Gaul,..has been also tried with success upon sheep for the Black Rot.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 260 They will bring limestone 14 or 15 miles, burn it, and sprinkle their potatoe land with it to prevent the black rot.
1809 Repertory Arts, Manufactures, & Agric. 14 343 Some people have been led to consider the rot as of two kinds, viz. the querney, or black rot, proceeding from foul feeding, and the hunger rot, from an absolute deficiency of food of every kind.
1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849: Agric. (U.S.) 438 In the southern part of the State winter apples are very liable to the black-rot, spots, [etc.].
1957 Encycl. Brit. X. 640/1 Europeans imported the American varieties [of vine], and thereby unwittingly imported phylloxera..and black rot (Guignardia bidwellii).
2000 Org. Gardening Sept.–Oct. 27/3 Black rot attacks leaves, shoots, tendrils, and young stems, which show small, dark, elliptical cankers.
black rum n. = dark rum n. at dark adj. Additions (cf. white rum n. at white adj. Special uses 1e).
1872 Overland Monthly June 506/2 The company own a number of vessels, and employ..from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men, who receive about twenty cents per diem, their food, and a drink of black rum.
1976 Antioch Rev. 34 311 A shot or two of black rum at one or another of the ramshackle ‘clubs’.
2003 N.Y. Times Mag. 15 June ii. 46/2 Its Bermuda fish chowder may be the best I had—a combination of a tomato base with a purée of local fish, celery, onion, carrot, that I laced with local black rum.
black rust n. any of several plant rusts producing black discoloration, esp. the winter or teliospore stage of Puccinia graminis, a serious pathogen of wheat and other cereals.
1785 R. Baker Let. 27 July in Lett. & Papers Agric. (Bath & West of Eng. Soc.) (1788) 4 282 The bearer hereof, Richd Winsor, of Berry-Pomeroy, near Totnes.., has found out a method of curing the Black-Rust in wheat.
1887 Amer. Naturalist 21 1117 Farmers say the red rust of wheat produces comparatively slight injury, while the black rust is destructive.
1904 T. F. Hunt Cereals in Amer. vi. i. 96 There are two stages of rust found on the wheat plant:..(2) the black rust, caused by elongated two-celled teleutospores.
1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 35 This particular species [of barberry] has the misfortune to be the alternate host of the Black Rust of Wheat and it should not therefore, be planted in wheat-growing districts.
black scab n. any of several fungal diseases of plants causing rough, dark-coloured patches or outgrowths on the fruit, stem, etc.; esp. potato wart disease, caused by the soil-borne pathogen Synchytrium endobioticum (also called black wart).
1830 Western Agriculturalist p. xi, This is the true way to remove all excresences on fruit trees, especially the black scab from plum trees.
1884 Canad. Horticulturalist Feb. 33/1 The apple crop is very light; in some northern localities the fruit was attacked widely with black scab.
1908 Daily Chron. 30 Oct. 1/7 The disease of black scab is spreading alarmingly among potatoes.
2002 Scotsman (Nexis) 9 Oct. 16 Slugs and black scab have caused problems in some areas.
black scour n. (in sing. and pl.) bloody diarrhoea in livestock; esp. (in sheep) infestation with parasitic nematodes of the genus Trichostrongylus, and (in pigs) swine dysentery.
1749 W. Ellis Compl. Syst. Improvem. Sheep iii. v. 355 We reckon that the white Scour is catching, when the black Scour is not.
1847 Farmer's Mag. Sept. 208/2 As late in the season as the middle of October, my lambs lying as usual on cabbages, with plenty of clover-hay chaff, suddenly fell with the black scour.
1942 C. G. Grey & Dale U.S. Dept. Agric. Farmers' Bull. MCMXIV. 15 Swine Dysentery is also known as..bloody dysentery, bloody flux, black scours, and colitis.
1984 B. MacLaverty Cal 68 Brown stomach, lungworm, black scour, bankrupt worm.
2001 N. B. Haynes Keeping Livestock Healthy (ed. 4) vii. 161 Other names [for swine dysentery] are black scours and bloody scours.
black scurf n. any of several fungal diseases of plants causing black, scurf-like discoloration; esp. a disease of potatoes caused by Rhizoctonia solani in which small fungal growths appear on the skin of tubers.
1899 D. McAlpine Fungus Dis. Citrus Trees Austral. 132 Black Scurf of Citrus Fruits... This disease resembles one stage of Sooty Mould, only it does not peel off and leave the surface unbroken.
1903 Year-bk. Agric. 404 The same fungus causes black scurf of potato tubers.
1913 F. L. Stevens Fungi which cause Plant Dis. 504 C. scabrum McA. is the cause of black scurf of citrus fruit in Australia.
2005 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. (Nexis) 12 Mar. 38 Seed potato producers are being advised to consider treating stocks for black scurf, which is reportedly visible on 45% of tatties.
black section n. Brit. Polit. a grouping of non-white members of a Constituency Labour Party, aiming to represent the interests of non-whites; (also) such a grouping within the Labour Party as a whole.
1982 New Statesman 13 Aug. 9/1 What the party needs is..a black section within as an internal training-ground and pressure group, like the women's section and the Young Socialists.
1988 Parl. Affairs 41 319 The conference also overwhelmingly rejected proposals to set up Black sections within the party, a matter which had caused difficulty earlier in the year [sc. 1987].
1998 Independent (Nexis) 25 Sept. 7 It took a bitter struggle by the ‘Black Section’ campaign before any more black MPs—three African-Caribbean and one Asian—were elected in 1987.
2010 Guardian (Nexis) 9 June 29 My friends at..the Labour party black sections have worked their butts off to help increase the number of African Caribbean and Asian members of parliament.
black shale n. a dark-coloured, finely laminated carbonaceous shale rich in organic compounds.
1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 30 The Bodies through which they dig to come at the Vein are generally Limestone and Black Shale.
1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbyshire I. 399 The Black-shale flake..produces a bed of Ironstone, that has a good deal of Spar in veins or Septa in it.
1896 Trans. Federated Inst. Mining Engineers 10 483 It became evident that no coal-seam above the blackshale could be profitably worked on a large scale.
1951 Trans. Inst. Brit. Geographers No. 17. 146 In Derbyshire, centering on the Clay Cross-Chesterfield area, several seams are again of coking quality; the best is the Blackshale (= Silkstone).
2002 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Aug. 43/1 Some of this carbon becomes incorporated into sedimentary rocks such as black shales, the largest reservoir of organic matter on earth.
black sheet n. a piece of ungalvanized sheet iron.
1850 F. Overman Manuf. Iron v. 370 We have seen very beautiful sheet iron made from very cold-short iron containing phosphorus, and very cloudy- looking black sheets from the best and toughest charcoal iron.
1895 Daily News 18 Feb. 2/5 Black sheets for galvanisers.
1930 Engineering 21 Feb. 254/3 In the black-sheet trade.
2004 A. E. Mosher Capital's Utopia ii. iv. 97 In 1897, the total capacity of the new mill was 70,000 gross tons of ingots, 96,000 gross tons of sheet bars, 38,000 tons of black sheets and 51,000 tons of galvanized sheets.
black shoe n. U.S. Navy slang a surface naval officer, as opposed to an aviator or submariner; freq. attrib., esp. in black-shoe navy. [With reference to the black shoes which formerly distinguished the uniform of the sailor from that of the aviator, who wore brown shoes: see brown shoe n. at brown adj. Additions.]
1950 Los Angeles Times 26 Jan. 8/2 All of us in the Navy must avoid using such terms as black-shoe Navy, trade-school boys, mustangs, [etc.].
1962 J. E. Quirk No Red Ribbons iv. 25 You fellows Black Shoes?.. He don't like nobody that can't fly and's got rank.
1989 J. Q. Wilson Bureaucracy ii. vi. 106 The ‘black shoe’ navy is the navy of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers,..built to protect the sea lanes and bombard enemy shores.
1994 T. Clancy Debt of Honor xxi. 335 Fortunately, his chief engineer was a black-shoe destroyer sailor with a command under his belt.
2005 W. B. Johnson & G. P. Harper Becoming Leader Annapolis Way i. 22 ‘Black shoes’ sailed at 30 Knots, whereas ‘brown shoes’ flew at 300 knots.
black-sick adj. now chiefly hist. (in oyster farming) designating female-phase larviparous oysters whose mantle chamber contains almost fully developed larvae having the appearance of a dark mass.
1667 T. Sprat Hist. Royal-Soc. 209 The Male-Oyster is black-sick, having a black substance in the Fin.
1869 J. G. Jeffreys Brit. Conchol. 5 165 The most forward, or ‘black sick’, easily opened, and have evidently lost much of their muscular power.
1896 M. Hartog in S. F. Harmer & A. E. Shipley Cambr. Nat. Hist. III. iv. 114 The old view, that ‘black-sick’ oysters are the male..is therefore quite incorrect.
1977 Harpers & Queen Nov. 275/4 Fertilised eggs, which oyster farmers call..white, grey or black sick, depending on how ripe it is.
2002 N. Milner Incremental Growth of European Oyster 70 When oysters are incubating eggs they are described as being ‘white-sick’, ‘grey-sick’ and finally ‘black-sick’ due to changes in the pigment in the digestive tubules.
black silicon n. a form of silicon with a modified surface structure resembling an array of microscopic cones, giving it very effective absorption of visible light and infrared.
1986 Microelectronic Engin. 5 387 The so called black silicon occurring in a pure Cl2 plasma is caused by micro masking by Al-, Si- oxide clusters which stem from surface absorbed oxygen and the alumina covered cathode.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 12 Oct. (Business section) 4/2 Black silicon has since been found to have extreme sensitivity to light.
black silk n. now hist. (attrib.) designating a later period of mourning during which black silk is worn instead of crape.
1894 Daily News 22 Nov. 8/1 Deep crape and distinctive headgear have been dropped at the end of six months, the period known technically as ‘black silk’ then setting in.
black smallpox n. [after post-classical Latin variolae nigrae (1662 or earlier)] a severe form of smallpox with haemorrhage into the skin.
[1672 J. Josselyn New-Englands Rarities 63 The Black Pox, the Spotted Feaver, the Griping of the Guts, the Dropsie, and the Sciatica, are the killing Deseases in New-England.]
1696 J. Pechey tr. T. Sydenham Whole Wks. iv. vi. 160 Not long a go a very Virtuous and Noble Lady was committed to my care, who had the dangerous black Small-pox [L. Variolis nigris & mali moris laborantem].
1753 P. Shaw New Pract. Physic (ed. 7) I. 145 These eruptions are frequently depressed in the middle, and there turn black; from whence the black small-pox.
1871 Med. News & Libr. 29 166/1 In the black smallpox all treatment is useless.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) x. 268 In very severe cases there may be toxic capillaritis with cutaneous purpuric hæmorrhage, the so-called ‘black’ smallpox.
2005 T. Reiss Orientalist (2006) iii. 73 The captains called the disease black smallpox, though Lev thought it could just as well have been the plague.
black smoker n. Oceanogr. a deep-sea hydrothermal vent which ejects water rich in black particles consisting chiefly of sulphide minerals; (also) a chimney or similar structure created at such a vent by the deposition of minerals; cf. white smoker n. at white adj. Additions.
[1980 F. N. Spiess et al. in Science 28 Mar. 1425/1 Edifices atop the mounds are classed as either black or white, and those venting particulates are dubbed smokers.]
1980 F. N. Spiess et al. in Science 28 Mar. 1425/1 (caption) The black smoker is similar to that shown on the cover, at which 380° ± 30℃ water temperatures were measured.
1987 F. Jackson & P. Moore Life in Universe ii. 66 Recent explorations of the sea bed have revealed the presence of unusual local conditions where hot vents (named black smokers) occur.
2007 T. Friend Third Domain vii. 199, I found archaea living in deep sea hot vents with their spectacular black smokers.
black soap n. any of various types of dark-coloured soap; spec. (a) a soft soap made from alkali and animal blubber or fish oil (now hist.); (b) a soap originating in Africa made from the ashes of certain leaves and bark together with oils such as shea butter, palm oil, or coconut oil.
c1425 tr. J. Arderne Treat. Fistula (Sloane 6) 40 (MED), Ane oyntement made of blakke sope and poudre of bole.
1526 Treasure of Pore Men f. xxxiv, Take blacke sope in a clene cloth and put it in yelowe pysse & then anoynte the morfewe therwith.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 364 Then washe him twice with blacke Sope.
1669 J. Blagrave Epitome Art of Husbandry 108 Take Butter, black Sope, and Hemlockherb, with a quantity of Salt and Oyl proportionable, then mix them altogether.
1704 Dict. Rusticum (at cited word), For black Soap, it is made with strong Lye..and Whale or Fish Oil, commonly called Train-oil.
1826 Glasgow Mechanics' Mag. 29 Apr. 136/2 Cottons which have received stains of oil are best cleared by a hot solution of black soap.
1942 V 27 60 Brazilian ex-slaves..would bring to be sold in Brazil such African products as kola nuts, palm oil, black soap, [etc.].
2006 Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel (Nexis) 7 Mar., Students plan to make the so-called ‘black soap’ following a traditional Ghanaian recipe.
black soil n. soil or earth that is black; a rich, dark soil, spec. = chernozem n.; freq. attrib.; cf. black earth n.
1700 C. Leigh Nat. Hist. Lancs. i. iii. 55 These Countries afford us various sorts of Earths, but the most noted are the Black Soil, the Foxglove-Earth, and the Clay-Earth.
1845 R. I. Murchison et al. Geol. Russia in Europe I. xxii. 559 The black soil does not, however, occupy all the vast country alluded to.
1908 N. M. Tulaïkoff in Jrnl. Agric. Sci. 3 82 Black soils (Tchernozem)..cover generally the grassy steppe or prairies of the temperate zone.
1914 H. I. Jensen Soils of New S. Wales x. 47 In Australia we can find..black-soil plains (pasture and agriculture, maize and gourds).
1959 M. Hastings Hour-glass to Eternity i. ii. 40 What we call black soil areas. They're covered in kunai grass..no trees will grow in that soil.
1972 V. Priddle Dung on his Boots 145 Our bullock camp was black soil and starting to get very boggy.
2000 Land (N. Richmond, New S. Wales) 1 June (Trader section) 28/3 (advt.) Excellent all seasons mixture of river country, black soil channels, billabongs, cowells.
† black-sole n. Sc. Obs. a go-between; = Blackfoot n. 2.
1725 A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd iii. iii, This too fond heart o' mine..a black-sole true to thee.
1822 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. Oct. 436/1 Adam Dinwoodie fills the right honourable situation of secretary, or black sole, to Aggie and her gallant.
1834 A. Cunningham in R. Burns Wks. II. 310 On this occasion he forgets the duty of poetic ‘black-sole’, and absolutely courts a young lady for a friend, in very persuasive rhyme.
black south-easter n. S. Afr. (esp. in the Western Cape) a violent south-easterly wind.
1836 T. Maclear Observ. Halley's Comet 6 Feb. in Mem. Royal Astron. Soc. (1838) 10 126 Wind violent—a ‘black south-easter’.
1870 Cape Monthly Mag. Dec. 357 Then we are sometimes blessed with a black south-easter... The mountain is then quite buried in cloud, the air is laden with moisture, the winds run howling hither and thither,..the rain descends.
1950 L. G. Green At Daybreak for Isles vi. 74 In the middle of January 1844 a ‘black south-easter’, the wind most feared in summer on this coast, forced most of the fleet to run for open sea.
2010 Cape Times (Nexis) 22 Feb. (Sport section) 22 The runners battled in stormy conditions as they were buffeted by a black south-easter on the switchback course around the southern tip of the Peninsula.
black spring n. Austral. a spring arising from rich dark soil; now chiefly in place names.
1847 Melbourne Argus 27 July 3/2 In consequence the cattle and sheep eat the soil which surround the numerous springs, commonly called black springs.
1878 J. W. Bull Early Experiences Life S. Austral. x. 55, I..passed over a saddle, on the western side of which I discovered the Black Springs, as they are now called.
2005 Sunday Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 20 Mar. 11 Warby Range State Park has many viewing points, picnic spots and walking trails, including..Black Springs—a natural source of permanent water in the park.
Black Spy n. cant (now arch.) (with the) the Devil.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, Black spy,..the Devil.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Black spy, the devil.
1896 L. C. Cornford Capt. Jacobus iii. 37 For drinking, roaring drunk, hand-to-fist, and raising the Black Spy in general, commend me to the Mul-Sack's crew.
2009 L. R. Burkard House in Grosvenor Square xiii. 140 ‘Ye're the Black Spy, ain't cha!’ ‘The what?’ ‘Old Nick! Old Harry. The devil 'imself!’
black-step n. Printing attrib. relating to or designating thick black marks printed at progressively differing positions on the fold of the outer leaf of each section (section n. 2f), and used as a guide to collating the sections in the correct order for binding.
1946 A. Monkman in H. Whetton Pract. Printing iv. 56/2 Another style of signature which has become popular in bookwork offices is known as the black-step method... A piece of rule, about 6 points thick and 24 points long, is placed between the first and last pages (or spine) of each section... For the first section the rule would be positioned opposite the top line of text. The next section would have the rule stepped down, say 24 points, and so on through the sections.
1994 D. C. Greetham Textual Scholarship (new ed.) iii. 135 Black-step collation marks may be used instead of signatures as a guide to the binder.
black stone n. Islam the sacred stone which is embedded in the eastern corner of the Kaaba.
1704 J. Pitts True Acct. Mohammetans 82 At one Corner of the Beat there is a black Stone fastned, and fram'd in with silver Plate, and every time they come to that Corner they kiss the Stone.
1862 Times 25 Aug. 9/4 We at once advanced to the Black Stone embedded in an angle of the Kábah, kissed it, and exclaimed, ‘Bismillah wa Allahu Akbar.’
1933 Columbia Law Rev. 33 199 The great Omar performed the tawaf around the Ka'ba in Mecca, and kissed the black stone there enshrined.
2000 Z. Smith White Teeth vi. 152 You come with me on haj. If I am to touch that black stone before I die I will do it with my eldest son by my side.
black stripe n. (a) = blackstrap n. 1; (b) a disease of tomatoes caused by the fungus Alternaria solani, in which blackish lines appear on the stem followed by widespread necrosis (now rare).
1862 J. Thomas How to mix Drinks 78 Black stripe... 1 wine-glass of Santa Cruz rum. 1 table-spoonful of molasses. This drink can be made either in summer or winter.
1894 Garden 11 Aug. 119/2 Black stripe, for as yet I know of no other name for it, is to a certain extent infectious.
1900 G. J. Kappeler Mod. Amer. Drinks (new ed.) 22 Black stripe. One teaspoonful molasses, one small lump ice, one jigger Jamaica, Medford, or St. Croix rum. Mix well in small bar-glass.
1927 Smallholder 26 Mar. 104/2 If any [tomato plants] have very finely cut, lace-like leaves, take them out... These plants have contracted Black Stripe disease.
2003 M. H. Regan Bartender's Best Friend 85 Black stripe..is a very old drink, probably first served in the 1700s when sugar, molasses, and Caribbean rum were available ingredients in the newly settled America.
black studies n. chiefly U.S. the study of African or African-American culture, history, etc., esp. as an academic subject or course.
1968 Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 25 Jan. 8/1 The trustees should ‘assert some leadership by means of policy statements’ calling for courses in ‘black studies’.
1969 College Composition & Communication 20 265 We urge that CCCC and NCTE work to include preparation for student teachers which will lead to black studies for black students, working class studies for working class students, women's studies, etc.
1973 W. Baskin & R. N. Runes Dict. Black Culture 53 Black studies..now include courses in African history and religions, Swahili, and Afro-American literature, economics, and social and political thought.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 7 Dec. 1/1 Women's studies and black studies are now seen as serious areas of academic inquiry.
2004 Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Sept. a 27/2 In the 1990s, Gates set out to create a premier black studies department at Harvard, assembling a ‘dream team’ of academics.
black stump n. [the original black stump has been variously but inconclusively identified since 1826 (compare 1970 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 22 Feb. 27)] Austral. colloq. a place imagined to be the last outpost of civilization, usu. in this side of the black stump.
[1884 Argus (Melbourne) 8 Oct. 6/5 Mr. Gillies.—..The bill of 1882 proposed to stop that [railway] line at a portion of the district where there was no considerable population. Mr. Mason.—A black stump. (Laughter.)
1889 Mercury (Hobart) 21 May, Some of those lines terminate at places which, though not quite like the proverbial ‘black stump’ of Victoria, are almost as bad.]
1953 Sydney Morning Herald 23 Jan. 12/3 (advt.) Here is the greatest buy this side of the black stump.
1956 ‘N. Shute’ (title) Beyond the black stump.
1975 X. Herbert Poor Fellow my Country 1149 I've been played for the biggest mug this side o' the Black Stump.
2009 Canberra Times (Nexis) 25 June, We were living out beyond the black stump there was nothing to do.
black sugar n. (a) brown sugar n. at brown adj. Special uses 2; (b) Sc. liquorice or liquorice juice.
c1430 Two Cookery-bks. 7 Take blake sugre, an cold water.
1696 J. Ovington Voy. Suratt 238 Another Compound-Liquor made in India, which is distilled from Black Sugar mixt with Water, with the bark of the Tree Baboul.
1787 J. Beattie Scoticisms 15 Black sugar, Licuorice juice.
1864 J. Brown Plain Words Health v. 76 A bit of black sugar.
1877 Sugar Cane 2 July 352 Any marked difference as to good or inferior kinds of black sugar depends on the quality of the cane and the skill of the workmen.
1920 J. K. Mackenzie Story of Fortunate Youth 21 We..are much disillusioned when we learn that black sugar stamped with a seal is just nothing but licorice.
1999 A. Arndt Seasoning Savvy 145 This substance obtained from boiling down licorice juice, sometimes called ‘black sugar’, is the traditional basis for licorice cough drops, syrups, and candies.
2000 W. Lianmao in D. Selbourne tr. J. D'Ancona City of Light xii. 463 Black sugar refers to a type of milled sugar... Jacob could certainly have purchased black sugar in Quanzhou
black tar n. U.S. slang an exceptionally pure form of heroin originating in Mexico.
1983 Tri-City Herald (Pasco, Washington) 12 Oct. b2/2 He pleaded innocent to one heroin selling charge filed in connection with the alleged sale on Aug. 11 of ¼ gram of ‘black tar’ heroin to an undercover informant.
1986 Economist 7 June 37/3 What makes black tar heroin unique is that it has a single, foreign source—Mexico—and finds its way into Mexican-American distribution networks, often via illegal immigrants.
1996 Sunday Santa Fe New Mexican 14 Apr. b4/3 For reasons not completely known, botulism in heroin only seems to show up in Mexican black tar.
2006 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) (Herald-Times ed.) 9 July a6/2 Two types of heroin seen locally are ‘brown powder’ and ‘black tar’.
black taxi n. = black cab n.
1911 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 4 Dec. 6/3 A black taxi drew up at the curb and three men sprang out.
1968 A. Ginsberg Planet News 100 A high black taxi with orange doorlight passes around iron railing blazoned with red sigma Underground.
1993 Guardian 25 Oct. i. 1/4 The loyalists do shootings in bookies and black taxis with kids inside.
2006 G. Malkani Londonstani xii. 140 Now you can stretch to a proper, shiny black taxi.
black tea n. (a) tea that is fully fermented before drying, and typically dark in colour; cf. green tea n. at green adj. and n.1 Special uses 4a; (b) tea served without milk or cream; cf. sense A. 2e.
1706 tr. E. Y. Ides Three Years Trav. Moscow to China 44 The better sort drink Kara't Za, or black Tea, which is a particular Species of that Plant, the infusion of which, instead of greenish, tinctures the water blackish.
1854 W. Williamson Dis. Females & Children 5 Pure water, toast water, gum arabic water, weak black tea, cocoa and plain chocolate.
1888 J. Paton Tea in Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 97/2 Black and green tea are made indifferently from the leaves of the same plant.
1937 Amer. Home Apr. 122/4 In Ceylon and India most of the tea is black tea, while in China and Japan green tea represents more than half of the manufacture.
1963 R. L. Bacon In Sticks 89 The foreman nodded..squinting up at us from where he sat nursing a mug of black tea. ‘Goodday, mates. Like a mug of brew?’
2003 Time 5 May 86/4 Black tea contains..complex antioxidants called theaflavins and thearubigins.
2008 S. Heaney in D. O'Driscoll Stepping Stones ii. viii. 232 They would walk the whole way to Donegal, keeping going on black tea and dry bread.
black theology n. orig. U.S. an interpretation of Christianity which promotes the liberation of black people from oppression, racism, and poverty; cf. liberation theology n.
1968 Independent (Pasadena, Calif.) 11 Nov. 5/2 To restore the purity of original Christianity, ‘black theology’ wants to roll back many of the major characteristics of Christianity.
1969 J. H. Cone Black Theol. & Black Power ii. 31 There is, then, a desperate need for a black theology, a theology whose sole purpose is to apply the freeing power of the gospel to black people under white oppression.
1986 R. Fatton Black Consciousness in S. Afr. v. 107 Christianity, according to the dominant theme of Black Theology, was imbued with the legacy of Jesus' identification with the oppressed, and Jesus' condemnation of the powers that be.
2000 W. J. Jennings in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 74/1 Liberation, as the link between theology and sociopolitical agendas, has always been an important concept for black theology.
black tin n. [compare post-classical Latin stagnum nigrum, stannum nigrum (1195, 1508 in British sources)] Mining tin ore (usually cassiterite, SnO2) prepared for smelting, as distinct from metallic tin; cf. white tin n. at white adj. Special uses 1c(b).
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 13v, They measure their blacke Tynne, by the Gill, the Topliffe, the Dish and the Foote.
1767 Philos. Trans. 1766 (Royal Soc.) 56 37 The best tin ore..will not melt without flux, nor do twenty pounds of black tin usually produce more than fourteen pounds of white.
1865 E. Burritt Walk to Land's End 320 The mine produces about 430 tons of black tin annually.
1936 Times 16 July 25/6 Geevor Tin.—Results for the three months ended June 30:—Tons of ore crushed, 14,267; tons of black tin (65 per cent. sn.) produced, 250.
2005 Frontier Star (Pakistan) (Nexis) 10 Dec., Total exemption of custom duty and sales tax on import of black tin used as raw material for manufacturing of tinplate.
black tobacco n. strong, dark tobacco.
1698 tr. L. Hennepin Continuation xxviii. 108 in New Discov. in Amer., I presented them with two Fathoms of black Tobacco, which they love mightily; theirs is not so well prepar'd, nor so strong as that of Martenico.
1790 E. Umfreville Present State Hudson's Bay 63 Let us trade good black tobacco, moist and hard twisted.
1897 F. W. Sykes With Plumer in Matabeleland 103 A half-pound cake of black tobacco fetched £2.
1977 C. Wagley Welcome of Tears i. 8, I was able to complete my purchases—among them beans, rice, rapadura,..salt, and coils of black tobacco.
2002 Carcinogenesis 23 1994/2 Haemoglobin adducts of 15 different aromatic amines were determined in non-smokers and smokers of blond- or black-tobacco cigarettes.
black tongue n. chiefly U.S. (originally) any of various diseases or disorders exhibiting a dark discoloration of the tongue, esp. blackleg in livestock or (more fully black tongue fever) typhus, typhoid, or meningococcal meningitis in humans; (in later use also) niacin deficiency, esp. in livestock or domestic animals; pellagra.
1833 Let. 30 Dec. in Thomsonian Recorder (1834) 18 Jan. 114/2 There is a disease prevalent in various parts of the United States, among cattle and horses, called the Black Tongue.
1843 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 6 250 There were several more cases [of typhus fever] in the immediate vicinity equally fatal, which received the very expressive title of Black tongue fever or Black fever.
1858 C. L. Flint Milch Cows (1860) 281 Typhoid fever..is sometimes followed by diseases known as black tongue, black leg, or quarter evil.
1919 J. P. Dunn Indiana II. 804 In 1842–3 epidemic erysipelas prevailed in a number of counties in southern Indiana, and was known by a number of popular names, as ‘black tongue’, ‘sore throat’, etc.
1936 Jrnl. Nutrition 11 75 Fractions prepared from liver extract which were rich in vitamin G (B2) and from which the hepatoflavin had been removed..were very active in the cure of black tongue.
2003 Dis.-a-month 49 661 Acute black tongue was first demonstrated in dogs, with similar observations in swine.
black tooth n. N. Amer. (now rare) decay of one or more teeth in young pigs; localized bacterial infection or sepsis associated with this.
1851 Boston Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 20 Aug. 68 A disease known as the black tooth, has proved very fatal to swine at St. Johns, N. B.
1877 Rep. Vermont Dairymen's Assoc. 8 107 Black tooth is a popular disease of swine.
1918 Amer. Jrnl. Vet. Med. 13 60/2 In so-called ‘black tooth’, where shedding of the temporary tusks does not take place, the loosened tooth predisposes to infection.
black tracker n. Austral. (now chiefly hist.) an Australian Aboriginal employed by police to track down fugitives or persons lost in the bush.
1862 Melbourne Leader 5 July, The black trackers could only discover the tracks of six horsemen.
1867 J. Morison Austral. 88 The native police, or ‘black trackers’,..are a body of aborigines trained to act as policemen.
1952 R. E. Robinson in Coast to Coast 1951–2 213 The black-tracker, in his police boy's shirt, trousers, and hat, was with them.
1988 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 30 Sept., Northern Territory police have called in black trackers to search for a man alleged to have shot and killed six members of his family at a remote outstation in Arnhem Land.
2006 Cairns (Queensland) Weekend Post (Nexis) 11 Feb. 5 Dr Musgrave was one of the last of the recognised ‘black trackers’. In 1960 he found the little boy lost in Australia's most famous search, at Guyra, New South Wales.
black trader factory n. rare (now hist.) a trading station run by Africans, serving as an intermediary between African suppliers and European traders; cf. factory n. 1a.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. xiv. 310 Here, in the black trader factory, you see the first stage of the export part of the trade.
1989 V. G. Myer Victorian Lady in Afr. xii. 137 A black trader factory was a fascinating place to stay.
black tripe n. unbleached tripe.
1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier i. i. 7 The grey flocculent stuff known as ‘black tripe’.
1992 E. Pearce Election Rides xv. 149 The commodities at the cooked-meat stall could only, outside Normandy, be offered in Lancashire—black tripe, cow-heel pieces (for the piemaking), little spherical black puddings and not pigs' trotters but, of course, pigs' feet.
black turf n. (a) peat, esp. as used for fuel (cf. turf n.1 3); (b) a dark clayey soil found in parts of southern Africa (also black turf soil); cf. black cotton soil n. [With South African use compare Dutch turf peat: see turf n.1]
a1650 G. Boate Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) xx. 155 Black Turf cannot be made without more trouble. First they mark out convenient places; for onely those are fit for it to which some paths do lead.
1780 A. Young Tour Ireland (Dublin ed.) I. 30 Adjoining to it is a black turf bog of admirable use for firing.
1850 Brit. Farmer's Mag. 22 222/1 For steam purposes the black turf is admirably adapted.
1897 ‘Cios’ Life Afrikanderland xxxiv. 102 The sticky black soil was coating the wheels to such a degree that..the wheels had no spokes, but became a solid mass of black turf.
1906 Transvaal Agric. Jrnl. Oct. 150 Heavy clay soils and black turf soils which become hard in dry weather are also apt to produce badly-shaped and dirty roots.
1982 H. H. Glassie Passing Time in Ballymenone xvi. 475 Black turf burns longest and hottest.
2005 L. Prendini in B. A. Huber et al. Afr. Biodiversity 43 In contrast, Chelectonus jonesii, a liochelid common in black turf soils.., is a pedipalpal burrower.
black velvet n. (a) Austral. and N.Z. slang (offensive) an Aboriginal or Maori woman as the focus of a white man's sexual interest; sexual intercourse with such a woman; such women collectively; (b) a drink made by mixing stout and champagne.
1900 H. Lawson Verses Pop. & Humorous 57, I know the track from Spencer's Gulf and north of Cooper's Creek—Where falls the half-caste to the strong, ‘black velvet’ to the weak.
1926 G. Frankau My Unsentimental Journey i. 24 ‘Black velvet’ of stout and champagne.
1929 K. S. Prichard Coonardoo vii. 79 ‘No “black velvet” for you, I suppose?’ ‘I'm goin' to marry white and stick white,’ Hugh said.
1930 H. Craddock Savoy Cocktail Bk. i. 29 Black velvet. Use long tumbler. ½ Guinness Stout. ½ Champagne.
1942 E. Waugh Put out More Flags 45 Young men..gulping Black Velvet.
1948 D. Ballantyne Cunninghams ii. xx. 263 I'd like a nice piece of black velvet... One of those quarter-castes, boy.
1990 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Oct. 20/4 Jack..is part-Aboriginal and the descendant of Hamish, a lecherous Scot who, as it is delicately put, liked black velvet.
2009 Olive Sept. 15/1 Sit at the street-side counter for rock oysters and a foaming tankard of Black Velvet—Guinness and Champagne.
black-wall adj. and n. (a) adj. (of a tyre) having black sidewalls; (b) n. a black-wall tyre.
1939 Fortune Oct. 80/2 A Davis Safety-Grip six-ply black-wall tire.
1948 San Antonio (Texas) Express 24 Sept. 7/4 (advt.) Cushion-aire tires... Size 6.70 x 16 blackwalls.
2006 M. Antonick Corvette Black Bk. 1953-2007 47 With blackwalls, wheels were painted body color.
2007 P. Keresture Perspective 35 A black-wall tire and a silver wheel cover with imitation spokes.
black wart n. (more fully black wart disease) = black scab n.
1846 Cultivator Aug. 258/2 At a late meeting in Boston, John Owen of Cambridge, stated he cured the black wart on plum trees by cutting off and washing in salt water.
1950 L. E. Hawker Physiol. Fungi viii. 240 Some, such as Synchytrium endobioticum, which causes the black-wart disease of the potato..are obligate parasites and exist in the soil only as spores.
2004 J. W. Taylor et al. in J. Cracraft & M. J. Donoghue Assembling Tree of Life 184/1 This parasite causes a malformation of potato tubers known as black wart.
Black Watch n. [perhaps so called from the dark-coloured tartan adopted by the regiment] (formerly) the Royal Highland Regiment of the British army; (now) the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.The Black Watch ceased to exist as a regiment in its own right in 2006.
1739 Lord Lovat Let. 7 Apr. in W. Fraser Chiefs of Grant (1883) II. 380 My dear Frank..is not to stay any time in what you call the Black Watch. I think it is a right name to us, for we are represented very black to our Generall.
1822 D. Stewart Sketches Highlanders Scotl. iii. §1 The 42nd Highland Regiment..was originally known by the name of Black Watch. It arose from the colour of their dress.
1871 Princess Alice Mem. 12 Sept. (1884) 273 We did not see the 42nd Highlanders, the ‘Black Watch’, to-day.
1952 Times 22 Nov. 5/2 Eighth Army censorship to-day released details of the action by the Black Watch in defending the position known as the Hook..some 30 miles north of Seoul.
1986 Linlithgowshire Jrnl. & Gaz. 17 July 3/2 The ancient Abbey of Inchcolm was the destination of 100 members of the Black Watch Regiment and their families.
2004 Metro (London ed.) 5 Nov. 1/1 Three Black Watch soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack yesterday—the first casualties since they struck out for Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death.
Black Week n. the week of 10 to 17 December 1899 during the Boer War (1899–1902), in which the British Army suffered defeats at Stormberg, Magersfontein, and Colenso.
1899 Daily News 18 Dec. 4/4 In view of the series of reverses during the Black Week it was decided to send out new Generals and more men.
1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Apr. 490/3 Black Week..brought a decade of cheap military victories to a dismal close.
2002 Victorian Stud. 44 314 Press and politicians alike looked forward to an easy campaign which would be over by Christmas. The events of ‘Black Week’..shattered this complacency.
black witch n. a witch who practises black magic; one who uses witchcraft for malicious purposes; opposed to white witch.
1645 J. Cleveland Char. London Diurnall 1 It differs..as a black Witch doth from a white one, whose office is to unravell her inchantments.
1730 W. Forbes Inst. Law Scotl. II. i. ii. 34 The bad Witch, commonly called the black Witch..is one who, by a League with the Devil, is assisted by him to work Mischief.
1862 Times 25 Sept. 6/3 The black witch hurt only the body and the estate.
1972 ‘Zolar’ Hist. Astrol. viii. 140 The white witch practiced only healing arts: she removed warts, cured fits, counteracted spells laid on cattle by bad or ‘black’ witches.
2010 Sun (Nexis) 12 Oct. 2 There's no such things as white or black witches.
b. In the names of birds. See also blackbird n., black cap n. 2, blackcock n., blackpoll n., black swan n. 2, etc.
black brant n. a brent goose of the subspecies Branta bernicla nigricans, having a very dark back and head and strongly contrasting white flank and breeding in Alaska.Formerly regarded as a separate species.
1805 W. Clark Jrnl. 16 Nov. in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1990) VI. 53 My Servt. York killed 2 Geese & 8 white, black and Speckle Brants.
1922 V. Stefánsson My Life with Eskimo 469 East of Richard Island the Black Brant and Longspurs had just begun to lay.
1999 Birdwatch Apr. 21/1 Rare and distinctive subspecies like Black Brant, Green-winged Teal and Black-headed Wagtail.
black cockatoo n. any of several large, predominantly black, Australian cockatoos constituting the genus Calyptorhynchus (family Cacatuidae), formerly regarded as subspecies of C. funereus; also (more fully great black cockatoo) the palm cockatoo, Probosciger aterrimus, of the same family.
1764 G. Edwards Gleanings Nat. Hist. III. 28 The Great Black Cockatoo.
1846 J. Gould Birds Austral. (1848) V. Pl. 13 Calyptorhynchus baudinii... White-tailed Black Cockatoo of the Colonists.
1896 B. Spencer Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Central Austral. I. 31 At the Goyder was secured the first specimen of the Western black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus stellulatus), which does not appear to extend further south than this.
1930 W. M. Mann Wild Animals in & out of Zoo xx. 253 The great black cockatoo from New Guinea contrasts sharply with the great white cockatoo from the Moluccas.
2003 L. Glaister in D. Adebayo et al. New Writing 12 193 A couple of crows and a flock of black cockatoos hop about, suddenly scuttering upwards, flashing scarlet underwings.
black curlew n. Eng. regional (east.) and U.S. regional (south.) a dark coloured ibis of the genus Plegadis; esp. the glossy ibis, P. falcinellus.
1829 J. Chambers Gen. Hist. Norfolk I. p. lxvi, Tantalus ignens—Glossy Ibis... Mr. Norman has one, which was killed at Cromer, and sold to him under the name of the Black Curlew.
1905 Country-side 15 July 158/2 The glossy ibis is known in East Anglia as the black curlew.
1928 F. A. Bailey Birds New Mexico 101 At a distance they [sc. white-faced glossy ibises] looked black enough to justify their common local name Black Curlew.
1951 E. W. Teale North with Spring 34 To natives of the region [sc. Florida] the glossy ibis, with its dark plumage and downcurving bill, is the ‘black curlew’.
black duck n. any of several ducks with predominantly dark brown or blackish plumage; esp. (a) (more fully American black duck) Anas rubripes of eastern North America, which has a pale head; (b) (more fully Pacific black duck) A. superciliosa of Australasia and Indonesia, which has a striped head.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes IV. x. vi. 1873 Numbers of seuerall sorts of Wild-fowle, as Wild-goose, Black-Duck, Woodcock, Herron, Pigeon.
1731 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina I. p. xxxvii/1 The Black Duck is considerably bigger than the common Wild Duck, and is esteemed preferable to it for the goodness of its flesh.
1829 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. III. 326 Anas perspicillata. Black, or Surf Duck... This Duck is peculiar to America, and altogether confined to the shores and bays of the sea.
1852 J. Macgillivray Narr. Voy. H.M.S. Rattlesnake I. 55 Anas superciliosa, the `black duck' of the colonists, the richest and best flavoured of the Australian water-fowl.
1867 W. B. Tegetmeier Poultry Bk. xxviii. 308 (heading) The Cayuga, or large American black duck.
1907 ‘N. Blanchan’ Birds Every Child should Know xvii. 269 In every slough where..black duck and pintails settle down to rest in the autumn, gunners wait concealed in the sedges.
1986 K. F. Walker in B. R. Davies & K. F. Walker Ecol. River Syst. xiii. 652 Pacific black duck and other ‘sedentary’ species frequent permanent swamps and waterways.
2001 Canoe & Kayak Mar. 71/1 Wings of common merganser, American black duck, and common goldeneye whir softly in passing.
black eagle n. an eagle with chiefly black plumage; esp. (a) Verreaux's eagle, Aquila verreauxii, of Africa; (b) (more fully Indian black eagle)Ictinaetus malayensis, of tropical Asia.The black eagle of Homer and Aristotle (see quot. a1797) is probably Verreaux's eagle.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 8 The trayne of the Egle Royall, as also the trayne of the slender blacke Egle, is short and stiffe at the poynt, euen as the traine of the Vulture is.
1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 783 There is one kinde of gentle faulcons or roiall eagles bred in the mountaines, which Homer calleth the Blacke eagle for game.
a1797 J. Parkhurst Hebrew & Eng. Lexicon (1799) 520/2 The black eagle, so called, according to Bockhart, from it's great strength in proportion to it's size. Thus Homer describes it... The same account is given of it by Aristotle, Pliny, and other writers.
1816 Times 11 Sept. 3/2 The sculls of a sea-horse and bear, the ear of a whale, and the preserved skin of a black eagle.
1906 A. O. Hume Nests & Eggs Indian birds 131 The female, shot on the nest, was sent to me—an old, unmistakable, black Eagle, with conspicuous white scapular patches.
1951 Cape Argus 20 Oct. (Mag.) 2/4 Most difficult of all birds to shoot, Hoesch found, was the black eagle or dassievanger.
1970 S. T. Satyamurti Guide Bird Gallery 102 The Indian Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis perniger) is a graceful long winged bird.
2006 P. Ryan Birdwatching Southern Afr. (new ed.) iii. 27 Verreauxs' Eagle was called Black Eagle in southern Africa, but its East African name was preferred to avoid confusion with the Indian Black Eagle Ictinaetus malayensis.
black hawk n. chiefly N. Amer. any of various American buzzards of the genera Buteo and Buteogallus with predominantly blackish plumage;esp. (a) the American rough-legged buzzard, Buteo lagopus sanctijohannis, of North America; (b) (more fully common black hawk) Buteogallus anthracinus, found from the southern United States to Central America.In quot. 1743 perh.: a falcon.
1743 G. Edwards Nat. Hist. Birds I. 4 (heading) The Black Hawk or Falcon.
1774 W. Bartram Trav. Georgia & Florida in Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. (1943) 33 165/1 The Black Hawk is about the size of the Chicken Hawk, they are all over a dark slate colour appearing perfectly black.
1832 Dublin Penny Jrnl. 1 Sept. 78/1 But I cannot describe how beautiful their aerial evolutions were, if a black hawk appeared in their rear.
1872 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (1884) 549 American ‘Rough-legged Buzzard’ ‘Black Hawk’.
1970 R. M. de Schauensee Guide Birds S. Amer. 47/1 Common black hawk... Black, base of primaries white.
1994 R. Hendrickson Happy Trails 24 Black hawk. A dark-colored, red-tailed hawk (Buteo calurus) native to the West. The name is also given to the Mexican black hawk, Swainson's hawk and Harris's hawk.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures I. 49/2 The Common black-hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) has a wingspan greater than 4 feet and is found in cottonwood groves in Arizona.
black-heart plover n. Canad. (now rare) the dunlin, Calidris alpina, which has a black belly in the breeding season.
1866 T. McIlwraith List Birds Hamilton, Canada West 92 Pelidna americana Coues. Red-backed Sandpiper. This is the Black-heart Plover of sportsmen.
1878 H. Scadding Toronto of Old xiv. 194 The Island, just across the Bay, where the black-heart plover were said always to arrive on a particular day, the 23rd of May, every year.
1919 Auk 36 265 Pelidna alpina. Red-backed Sandpiper.—Mr. Farley reports ‘Black-heart Plover’ May 11, 1899 at Red Deer. This is an old South Ontario name for this species.
black kite n. a partly migratory kite, Milvus migrans, which has chiefly dark plumage and a slightly forked tail, and is found throughout much of temperate Eurasia (where it is a summer visitor) and the rest of the Old World.The black kite is the commonest of the larger birds of prey. It includes forms from Africa and the Middle East that were formerly regarded as separate species, and these may yet warrant that status.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 45 They flee with the Sacre at twoo sortes of Kytes, that is, to the Kite royall, which is called by the Frenche man, the (Mylan Royall) and at one other kinde of Kyte, called the Blacke Kyte, (the Mylan Noyer) whiche is farre the more nimble byrde of the twoo.
1687 R. Wolley tr. N. Besongne Pres. State France (new ed.) i. xxiv. 205 When the Captain of these Flights of Hawks, takes a black Kite, in the Kings Presence, then he is to have the Kings Horse, his loose Gown, and his Slippers, for his Fees.
1787 C. Taylor Surv. Nat. II. 17 There is a black kite, whose tail is not forked, in size rather less.
1860 Ibis 1 256 The Black Kite, never once seen in winter, returns in immense numbers from the south.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 101/2 On Exmoor, a Black Kite flew over Hawkcombe Head (4th) and a Woodchat Shrike was found.
black lark n. a large lark, Melanocorypha yeltoniensis, the male of which is almost entirely black and which breeds on the steppes of Russia and Central Asia.
1738 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds III. 47 (heading) The black Lark.
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VII. 118 The Black or mutable Lark. Al. Tatarica et mutabilis, et Tanagra sibirica.
2003 Independent 3 June i. 5/1 The cause of their excitement..was a black lark, Melancorypha yeltoniensis—2,000 miles west of its normal haunts on the remote steppes of Kazakhstan.
black martin n. Eng. regional the common swift, Apus apus.
1674 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words 86 The black Martin or Swift; Hirundo apus.
1761 Philos. Trans. 1760 (Royal Soc.) 51 464 There are four distinct species of birds, that go under the general name swallow; viz. the swift or black martin; 2. the swallow..; [etc.].
1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 363/1 The Common Swift..is the..Screech Martin..and Black Martin of the country-people.
1938 Times 14 May 13/5 An old friend writes to me that C. A. Johns, backed by J. A. Owen, gives black martin and martlet as occasional names of the swift.
2000 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 18 Jan. (Suppl.) 25 Swifts were Black Martins or Skirrs.
black plover n. now rare the lapwing, Vanellus vanellus.
1538 T. Elyot Dict., Vpupa, a lapwynk or blacke plouer.
1560 tr. Albertus Magnus' Bk. Secretes f. I.iiiiv, And yf the harte, eye or brayne of a lapwynge or blacke plouer, be hanged vpon a mans necke, it is profitable agaynste forgetfulnes.
1632 R. Sherwood Dict. in R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues (new ed.) , Dixhuict, eighteene; also, a Lapwing, or Black-Plouer; (so tearmed because her ordinarie crie sounds not vnlike this word.)
1824 T. C. Croker Res. S. Ireland ix. 175 Cormick..could kill with his gun every bird that flew in air,—the wild duck, and the partridge, and the grouse, and black plover of the lonesome mountains!
1885 W. Aldridge Gossip Wild Birds Norwood & Crystal Palace Distr. 87 Peewit Plover, Lapwing, or Black Plover. Vanellus cristatus. Is not uncommon about here.
1920 Game Breeder Nov. 35/1 Prices for game in the London markets [in 1913]... Golden Plover, 10d to 1s each. Black Plover, 6d to 8d each.
black redstart n. a chiefly European and Asian songbird, Phoenicurus ochruros (family Muscicapidae), which resembles the common redstart (P. phoenicurus) but has predominantly black plumage in the male.
1831 W. Yarrell in Mag. Nat. Hist. Mar. 118 Black Redstart (Sýlvia Tìthys).—Since the publication of the notice of the first capture of this warbler in England..two other specimens have been taken.
1894 A. Newton Dict. Birds 776 The males of the Black Redstart seem to be more than one year in acquiring their full plumage.
1991 M. Tully No Full Stops in India (1992) i. 32 On the bank of one field we saw a black redstart, his tail quivering energetically.
black stork n. a partly migratory stork, Ciconia nigra, which has predominantly black plumage and a white belly, and breeds locally in the warmer parts of central and eastern Europe.
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 137 The flesh of a white Storke, and also of the blacke Storke, called (Saracinessa) is euill of nourishment, and hard to be endewed, and stinking.
1678 J. Ray tr. F. Willughby Ornithol. iii. ii. 286 The black Stork. Ciconia nigra. It is equal to the white Stork, or but little less than it.
1831 List Animals Gardens Zool. Soc. 1 July 35 Black storks are frequent in all the South-eastern parts of Europe, inhabiting marshes in these countries.
1907 E. Rhys Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen (ed. 3) 176 They were about to fell a tree..on whose naked branches a black stork had built its nest.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 113/4 The Whiskered Tern..was found by birders watching out for a Black Stork, which had flown south..earlier the same evening.
black swallow n. (a) Eng. regional the common swift, Apus apus; (b) Caribbean the American black swift, Cypseloides niger.
1765 Catal. Birds, Insects, &c. now exhibiting at Spring-Gardens 12 The Great Black Swallow, or Swift.
1793 W. Smellie tr. Buffon Nat. Hist. Birds VI. 554 The Black Swallow... This bird, which inhabits St. Domingo, is somewhat differently shaped from the Swift.
1889 Folk-lore Jrnl. 7 44 If the ‘black swallows’ (Hirundo Apus. Linn.) are out, there will be no luck [in fishing].
1960 J. Bond Birds W. Indies 132 Black Swift Cypseloides niger. Local names: Swallow; Black Swallow; Rain Bird.
black swift n. (usu. with distinguishing word) any of various swifts with black plumage; esp. (more fully American black swift) Cypseloides niger, of North and Central America.
1817 T. Forster Synoptical Catal. Brit. Birds 55 Apus cypselus... Black swift.
1868 Ibis 4 152 Cypselus barbatus... South-African Black Swift.
1901 Auk 18 394 On reaching the locality, I noticed a pair of Black Swifts flying about over the cliffs.
1962 C. D. Sherman tr. J. Dorst Migrations of Birds iii. 69 The spine-tailed swift..and the American black swift..also perform unusual flights, quite distinct from migrations.
2008 P. Briggs Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park 73 The outsized Alpine swift, which nests colonially on cliffs, often alongside the African black swift.
black warrior n. (a) N. Amer. Harlan's hawk, now regarded as a red-tailed hawk of the subspecies Buteo jamaicensis harlani (now hist.); †(b) a Venezuelan hummingbird, now regarded as a bearded helmetcrest of the subspecies Oxypogon guerinii lindenii; cf. warrior n. 4; (obs.).
1831 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. I. 441 (heading) The Black Warrior. Falco Harlani.
1854 Excelsior 2 328 Linden's helmet-crest, Oxypogon Lindeni... It is called the Black Warrior by the dealers in skins.
1884 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 543 Buteo harlani. Harlan's Buzzard. ‘Black Warrior’.
1891 J. W. Buel Living World 284 Black Warrior (Oxypogon lindenii). This is quite a large species.
1917 F. H. Herrick Audubon the Naturalist I. xxiv. 427 Harlan's Hawk, or the Black Warrior, is now regarded as a southern variety of the Red-tailed Hawk.
1983 Auk 100 161/1 John James Audubon described as Falco harlani..a hawk he had shot in Louisiana and called a Black Warrior.
black woodpecker n. any of various woodpeckers with predominantly black plumage; esp. (a) the large Dryocopus martius of northern Eurasia (also called great black woodpecker); (b) N. Amer. the pileated woodpecker, D. pileatus; freq. with distinguishing word.
1740 E. Albin Suppl. Nat. Hist. Birds 22 The lesser black Woodpecker... This Bird I had from a Gentleman very curious in Birds, &c. he told me it came from New England.
1806 M. Lewis Jrnl. 27 May in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1991) VII. 293 The Black woodpecker..is found in most parts of the rocky Mountains.
1877 T. C. Jerdon Birds of India I. 271 Picus cathpharius... The lesser black woodpecker.
1922 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45 298 There were ants in five of the six stomachs examined of the great black woodpecker; often in abundance.
2006 Bird Watching Aug. 13/2 Nutcracker, Wallcreeper, Alpine Swift and Black Woodpecker can be seen, not far from Dracula's Castle itself!
c. In the names of animals other than birds. See also black-beetle n., blackfish n., blackfly n., black panther n. 1, blacksnake n. 1, etc.
black ant n. any of various dark-coloured ants; esp. the small Lasius niger (also black garden ant), found widely in Europe and parts of Asia and North America.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes II. vii. ii. 956 There are great store of blacke Ants, which make holes in the earth, like field Mice.
1843 Penny Mag. 23 Dec. 491/2 The enslaved species are of two species, a black ant..and a mining ant.
a1921 A. T. de Mattos tr. J.-H. Fabre in E. W. Teale Insect World of J. Henri Fabre (1991) xxiii. 173 The distance covered by the nymph-stealing column varies: it all depends on whether Black Ants are plentiful in the neighbourhood.
2006 M. Golley Compl. Garden Wildlife Bk. (2007) 75 The Black Garden Ant is a familiar sight, very common in gardens.
black bear n. either of two forest-dwelling bears that typically have blackish fur: (more fully American black bear) Ursus americanus, of North America (which has a wide range of coat colours), and (more fully Asiatic black bear) Ursus (or Selenarctos) thibetanus, of East and South Asia (which has a pale crescent on the chest).
1589 J. Davis in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations iii. 785 Here we saw a blacke beare.
1648 B. Plantagenet Descr. New Albion 25 Here black Bears and Lions feeding on sweet foods, are killed and eaten.
1781 T. Pennant Hist. Quadrupeds II. ii. § ii. xx. 286 The black bears of America form a very distinct variety.
1800 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. I. ii. 451 The brown Bear is also said to be found in some of the northern parts of America... The American Black Bear is a different species.
1929 Amer. Mus. Novitates No. 360. 1 The Asiatic black bear is given generic rank as distinct from the typical genus Ursus on account of its color..and the formation of the plantar pads.
1992 Internat. Wildlife May–June 25/2 The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted in March to restrict the sale of body parts of American black bears.
2006 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 15 Jan. i. 7/5 Most of the 68 existing farms raise Asiatic black bears, which are also known as moon bears due to a colored crescent shape on their breasts.
blackbuck n. an antelope, Antilope cervicapra, found chiefly in South Asia, the male of which has blackish or dark brown upperparts, contrasting white underparts, and long spiral horns; cf. Indian antelope n. at Indian adj. and n. Special uses 1b.
1834 J. Forbes Oriental Mem. (ed. 2) I. x. 175 He ran with surprizing velocity, and killed a black buck.
1891 W. T. Blanford Fauna Brit. India: Mammalia ii. 521 Antilope cervicapra. The Indian Antilope or black Buck.
1930 W. M. Mann Wild Animals in & out of Zoo xv. 189 The black buck of India, a medium-sized antelope..makes a most successful exhibit.
2001 New Yorker 5 Mar. 74/2 Texas may have as many Indian blackbuck antelope as India, more Arabian oryx than Saudi Arabia, more scimitar-horned oryx than Africa.
black cattle n. (originally) †bovine animals regardless of colour (cf. cattle n. 4a) (obs.); (in later use) any of several breeds of cattle native to the uplands of Scotland and Wales which are typically (but not exclusively) black; animals of such a breed.
1610 J. Healey tr. J. L. Vives in tr. St. Augustine Citie of God viii. xiii. 320 And Porphery elsewhere saith that the lower the gods are, the sadder sacrifies they require: the earth-gods, and hell-gods loue blacke cattell: the first vpon alltars, the latter in graues and pits.
1725 Minute Bk. Soc. Antiq. 21 July (Brand), After the body [of a Highland chief] is interred, a hundred black cattle and two or three hundred sheep are killed for the entertainment of the company.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang., Black-cattle, oxen; bulls; and cows.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 378/2 In the usual acceptation..is confined to the ox, or what is called black cattle or horned cattle. But as many varieties are not black, and several have no horns, the name neat cattle is more appropriate.
1868 Perthshire Jrnl. 18 June, The large stock of black cattle and crosses.
1919 K. J. J. Mackenzie Cattle xi. 149 Welsh Black Cattle. Some 20 years ago there were two distinct types of black cattle in Wales.
1995 Daily Tel. 28 Aug. 2/8 Hardier breeds—Scottish black-faced sheep and black cattle—are now used by the commoners.
black clock n. (a) a large black beetle, such as a dor beetle (genus Geotrupes); cf. clock n.3; (b) Eng. regional (north.) = black-beetle n. 2.
1620 G. Markham Farewell to Husb. xiii. 90 Dores, or great black Clocks are vehement destroyers of all kind of Corne.
1727 R. Bradley tr. N. Chomel Dictionaire Oeconomique at Dores, Now the Way to secure or prevent these Dores, Dare, or Black Clocks, is, to make great Smokes in the Corn-fields in Seed-time.
1886 in F. Podmore Apparitions & Thought-transference (1894) vii. 169 He found a ‘blackclock’ (i.e. cockroach) floating in his coffee.
1951 S. H. Bell December Bride i. vii. 55 It's wonderful what happens tae black-clocks when they get intae long grass.
1999 C. Tóibín Blackwater Lightship (2000) iii. 56 He was afraid of the black clocks which darted awkwardly across the floor.
black cod n. (a) the saithe or coalfish, Pollachius virens; (b) any of various fishes of the family Nototheniidae, of southern oceans, which are predominantly dark with pale marbling; esp. Notothenia microlepidota, and (N.Z.) Paranotothenia magellanica; cf. Maori chief n. 1; (c) the sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria.
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. Of all our European Fishes, it seems to come nearest to the Cole-Fish or Black-Cod.
1808 J. Pinkerton Gen. Coll. Voy. & Trav. I. 437 The black cod..is very frequent in the sea of Finmark.
1886 R. A. A. Sherrin Handbk. Fishes N.Z. 302 Notothenia..microlepidota... Black Cod.
1941 Copeia 4 270 Anaplopoma fimbria, the ‘black cod’ or skil-fish, is a fish similar in general appearance to the cod, though it is a Percomorph fish, one of the Hexagrammatidae.
1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to Amer. 210 Many Americans wouldn't know..that a coalfish or a coley fillet is black cod.
1988 M. Francis Coastal Fishes N.Z. (rev. ed.) 54/2 Black cod Paranotothenia magellanica... Back usually uniform and dark.
2006 Olive Oct. 100/1 Choose between new-style sashimi anointed with hot soy soil, or black cod in miso (which is really sablefish).
black crappie n. U.S. a North American freshwater sunfish, Pomoxis nigromaculatus (family Centrarchidae), which has silvery-green skin with irregular small black markings.
1900 G. E. Delavan in Rep. Iowa State Fish & Game Warden 50 Still other names [of the calico bass] of local application are..black crappie and lake crappie.
1969 D. F. Costello Prairie World vi. 105, I realized this many years ago while fishing for black crappies on Jumbo Reservoir.
2010 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 25 Mar. 10 Black crappie prefer clearer water and are more commonly found around aquatic vegetation than are white crappie.
black dolphin n. (a) (more fully black dolphin fly) a black aphid, a blackfly; spec. the bean aphid, Aphis fabae; (now rare); (b) any of several marine dolphins (family Delphinidae) with black skin; esp. the long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, and the Chilean dolphin,Cephalorhynchus eutropia.
1743 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Aug. 45 The Shrimp or green Fly took the Pease, as the Black Dolphin, or Collier Fly, did the Beans.
1820 New Family Receipt-bk. (new ed.) 261 When the young shoots of standard cherry trees, or any other trees, are covered with the black dolphin flies, an infusion is made with the leaves and stalks of tobacco.
1851 M. Somerville Physical Geogr. (ed. 3) II. xxix. 266 The Grind or black dolphin has been known to run ashore in hundreds in the bays of Faroe, Orkney, and Shetland.
1904 Encycl. Americana III. at Caaing whale, The whole of the body is of a glossy black color, and hence the fish is frequently known as the blackfish..or black dolphin.
1919 Board Agric. & Fisheries Leaflet No. 104. 2 The Bean Aphis, known variously as Black Fly, Collier, and Black Dolphin.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 476/2 The Black dolphin (Cephalorhynchus eutropia ), one of the smallest cetaceans, ranges from the Strait of Magellan north to Valparaiso, Chile.
blackfin n. any of various dark-finned fishes; esp. (more fully blackfin tuna) a small tuna of the western Atlantic, Thunnus atlanticus, having the second dorsal fin and the dorsal finlets all dark.
1802 C. S. Sonnini Buffon's Hist. Nat. des Poissons (new ed.) X. 131 Sparus niger... Par les anglais, the black fin.
1848 N. Brit. Rev. 8 47 The black-fin or salmon smolt, the orange-fin or whitling, and the grey-fin or bull-trout smolt.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 491 The ‘Blue-Fin’, or ‘Black-fin’, Coregonus nigripennis, has thus far only been taken in the deeper waters of Lake Michigan.
1945 R. T. Whiteleather & H. H. Brown Exper. Fishery Surv. in Trinidad, Tobago & Brit. Guiana 95 It was an excellent lure for blackfin tuna (bonito).
2002 Sport Fishing Sept.–Oct. 30/1 Huston amassed 137.5 points..with two kingfish, three blackfin and one dolphin.
black fox n. a black variety of the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, occurring in North America and northern Eurasia, and often killed or reared for its valuable fur; cf. silver fox n. (a) at silver n. and adj. Compounds 2b.
1586 Acct. 18 May in Mariner's Mirror (1973) 59 103 They had of black fox, the rarest furres that are knowen xvten skinnes estimated to be wourth Cli a skinne.
1602 J. Brereton Briefe Relation Discov. Virginia 13 Beares. Luzernes. Blacke Foxes.
1757 Public Advertiser 18 Apr. 3/3 Muscovy Ducks, a Pair of large Eagles, two black Foxes from Hudson's Bay.
1826 J. D. Godman Amer. Nat. Hist. I. 276 The black fox is found throughout the northern parts of America..where it is considered among the richest and most valuable of furs.
1998 Arctic Anthropol. 35 128/2 Gromoff..listed eight varieties, including arctic fox..: black fox, red fox, silver fox, and cross fox; gray, white, and blue arctic foxes.
black goby n. a large goby, Gobius niger, of the north-east Atlantic and the Mediterranean, that is typically grey or brown in colour.
1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. 174 The Black Goby. Gobio niger.
1876 S. Smiles Life Sc. Naturalist (ed. 4) xiv. 290 She sent home a specimen of the Black Goby or Rock-fish.
1936 J. T. Jenkins Fishes Brit. Isles (ed. 2) 91 The Black Goby is a frequenter of rocky or sandy ground.
1996 ICES Jrnl. Marine Sci. 53 757 Black goby mostly ate gammarids, crabs, and fish.
black helmet n. a Caribbean helmet shell of the genus Cassis, esp. the king helmet ( C. tuberosa) and the queen helmet ( C. madagascariensis), both used in making shell cameos.
1846 Daily News 19 Feb. 8/2 The defendant had agreed to sell the plaintiff 22 pair of ‘Honduras black helmet shells’.
1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 740 The black helmet (Cassis tuberosa) of the West Indian seas.
1993 N. Penny Materials of Sculpt. (2005) i. 18 (caption) Shell cameo of a chariot... The shell is probably the Black Helmet (Cassis tuberosa).
black lion tamarin n. a lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, having chiefly black fur and a golden rump, found in only one small area of Brazil; also called golden-rumped lion tamarin.Formerly regarded as a subspecies of the (golden) lion tamarin, L. rosalia. Cf. black-faced lion tamarin n. at black-faced adj. Special uses.
1984 Folia Primatologica 42 150/1 The black lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, and the Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin..have rarely been bred.
2001 Independent 4 Apr. i. 9/6 Three other species of lion tamarin are also critically endangered. They are the black lion tamarin, the golden-headed lion tamarin, and the black-faced lion tamarin.
black mamba n. a large, highly venomous, mainly ground-dwelling mamba, Dendroaspis polylepis (family Elapidae), which is grey, brown, or olive-green in colour with a black interior to the mouth.
1859 D. Leslie in Glasgow Herald 14 Feb. 6/2 He had tramped on a black Mampa, at least ten feet long.
1876 Lady Barker in Evening Hours 1876 289/1 An Englishman having been bitten by a black mamba (a very venomous adder) some short time since.
1958 Listener 23 Jan. 154/1 Black mambas..have the unattractive habit of lurking in trees and dropping down on to the unwary.
2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 116/1 When agitated, black mambas raise their heads over a metre off the ground..and open their mouths wide.
black mullet n. (a) a dark mullet of the genus Mugil; esp. (U.S.) the flathead mullet, M. cephalus; (b) U.S. the northern kingfish, Menticirrhus nebulosus (family Sciaenidae).
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl., Mugil Niger, the black Mullet, a name given by authors to a fish of the Mullet kind, but all over black, more usually known by the name of the portius piscis.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 123 The King-Fish,..also known as..the ‘Black Mullet’ in the Chesapeake.
1915 National Geographic Mag. Aug. 168/2 These resembled the black mullet and were fairly edible, proving, however, of greater service in baiting the traps and the flashlight machines.
2009 Miami Herald (Nexis) 8 Nov. d9 By mid-October, the coastline is literally black with huge schools of black mullet, with large tarpon in tow.
black perch n. any of various dark perch-like fishes; esp. (a) a surfperch, Embiotoca jacksoni, of the east Pacific; (b) U.S. any of the freshwater sunfishes of the genus Micropterus (family Centrarchidae); (c) Austral. and N.Z. the luderick, Girella tricuspidata (family Kyphosidae).
1685 W. Penn Further Acct. Pennsylvania 9 There is the Catfish, or Flathead, Lampry, Eale, Trout, Perch black and white, Smelt, Sunfish, &c.
1792 New Syst. Nat. Hist. III. 226 Only five kinds of the perch are found in the lakes and on the coasts of Britain; the river perch, the sea perch, the basse, the ruffe, and the black perch.
1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 423/1 Centropristes nigricans, one of the species known by the name of the black-perch or black-bass, is abundant in the rivers of the United States.
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng., Black-Perch, a river fish of New South Wales, Therapon niger, family Percidæ.
1946 F. LaMonte N. Amer. Game Fishes 134 Micropterus dolomieu... Black Perch.
1966 R. B. Doogue & J. M. Moreland N.Z. Sea Anglers' Guide 242 Blackfish, black perch; black bream (Tasmania)... Frequents mangrove swamps and muddy river mouths.
2009 Environmental Res. 109 112 (caption) Other fish included sugartoad, butterfish, jacks, mahi mahi, hake fish, anchovies, black perch, [etc.].
black rat n. a cosmopolitan rat, Rattus rattus, with typically dark or black fur, large ears, and a long tail, which is now found chiefly in tropical and subtropical areas; also called ship rat, house rat, roof rat.The black rat is the chief host of the plague-transmitting flea. In South Asia it remains the dominant rat in domestic situations; in most cooler countries it has generally been replaced by the brown rat, R. norvegicus.
1772 R. Smith Universal Directory Rats (new ed.) 133 The black rat..is the old genuine English House-Rat.
1862 D. T. Ansted & R. G. Latham Channel Islands ii. ix. 201 The black rat, so rare in England, is common in Alderney and Herm.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman II. 1375 Many of the ‘black rats’ (Rattus rattus) in Britain are actually brown, and many of the ‘brown rats’..are black.
1988 Q. N. Myrvik & R. S. Weiser Fund. Med. Bacteriol. & Mycol. (ed. 2) xxiv. 347 Transmission from rat to rat and from rat to man is due to two species of rat fleas which parasitize Rattus rattus (black rat) and Rattus alexandrinus (Egyptian rat).
2007 R. Lovegrove Silent Fields vii. 217 The Black Rat..probably first arrived here with the Romans.
black rat snake n. a large, non-venomous colubrid snake, Elaphe obsoleta, of eastern North America, with chiefly blackish coloration (also called pilot black-snake); spec. one of the subspecies E. o. obsoleta.
1888 E. L. L. Arnold Eng. as she Seems 16 Here was waiting, like a black rat snake under a log, a line of these carriages.
1953 H. S. Zim & H. M. Smith Reptiles & Amphibians iii. 91 The Black Rat Snake, also known as the Pilot Black Snake, may be mistaken for the Black Racer.
2001 Canad. Geographic May–June 72/1 The islands are like stepping stones for all manner of species, like the black rat snake, Canada's largest reptile.
black rhino n. = black rhinoceros n.
1900 C. V. A. Peel Somaliland viii. 298 The head of the black ‘rhino’ is small in proportion to its body; the head of the white ‘rhino’ is large in proportion to its body.
1952 Aeronautics 26 37/1 The delightful experience of seeing our travelling companion and a tall Zulu emerge from the bush, pursued by a black rhino and all three running like hell.
2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 47/2 Black rhino still hide in the deepest thickets.
black rhinoceros n. a two-horned rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, of the eastern and central areas of Africa, having a pointed, prehensile upper lip.Not really distinguishable by means of colour from the much larger white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum.
1838 Penny Mag. 17 Mar. 101/1 In the South African Museum, the three species are—rhinoceros Africanus, or the black rhinoceros of the Cape colonists; rhinoceros simus, or the white rhinoceros; and rhinoceros ketloa.
1886 S. W. Baker Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia xiv. 246 There is only one species of this animal in Abyssinia; this is the two-horned black rhinoceros.
1965 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans On Track of Unknown Animals (1970) ii. 34 The white rhinoceros is the same greyish hue as the black rhinoceros.
2002 G. M. Eberhart Mysterious Creatures II. 407/1 The black rhinoceros lingers tenuously in widely scattered pockets of East, Central, and South Africa.
black scale n. a destructive soft scale insect, Saissetia oleae, that infests olive, citrus, and other cultivated plants in warm countries.
1880 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 3 July 4/2 He referred..to the black scale, nine species of which were known, and which had destroyed $10,000,000 worth of orchards in Illinois.
1930 Discovery Apr. 135/2 The little ladybird has been enlisted to fight the black-scale pest in California.
2005 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 18 Dec. (Homefront section) 6/2 The stress of the long, dry season has resulted in many grass trees..becoming infested with black scale.
black slug n. any of various dark-bodied terrestrial slugs; esp. the large Arion ater (family Arionidae), a common slug of northern Europe and northwestern North America that is typically black-bodied.
1756 T. Hale et al. Compl. Body Husbandry xiv. iv. 705/2 The small brown Slug is the most destructive of Wheat and other Grain; the great black Slug of Pulse.
1878 Zoologist 2 85 The Black Slug.—Found in the neighbourhood of Horsham, Cowfold, and West Grinstead, where black, white and red specimens have been met with, though rarely.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman I. xv. 395 In the common black slug (Arion ater) there is not even a vestige [of a shell].
1999 Independent on Sunday 18 Apr. (Review Suppl.) 51/1 There are four main garden slugs: the grey field slug..; the garden slug..; the keeled slug..; and the black slug (Arion ater), which is usually black but can be red-brown if you're lucky.
black squirrel n. a melanistic form of the (eastern) grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, of which there are several populations in North America.
1682 T. Amy Carolina 22 There are..the Red, the Grey, the Fox and Black Squirrels.
1742 J. Bartram Lett. (1992) 194, I have seen scores of black squirrels beyond ye mountains.
1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 401/2 The black squirrels have been considered by some to be a variety of the Sciurus cinereus, or of the Sciurus vulpinus, and by others have been referred to Sciurus capistratus.
2007 Garden City (Kansas) Telegr. 7 May 3/2 The town's governing body in August 1972 passed legislation to protect the black squirrel and proclaim the animal as the town's official mascot.
black swallowtail n. a common North American swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes asterius, which has chiefly black wings with narrow bands of yellow spots; also called parsnip swallowtail.The larva is the parsleyworm.
1840 P. H. Gosse Canad. Naturalist xii. 184 Another species, the Black Swallowtail (Papilio Asterius), is likewise found in Newfoundland and in the Southern States.
1930 A. H. Clark New Evol. xiv. 141 In that restricted group of swallowtails which includes our common black or parsnip swallowtail..all of the species except three feed on umbelliferous plants.
2003 Daily Herald (Chicago) 24 Aug. v. 1/2 She started..raising black swallowtail butterflies when she began noticing them laying eggs on her dill plants.
black whale n. now hist. any of several kinds of whale; esp. the southern right whale, Balaena australis; cf. blackfish n. 3.
1615 E. Grimeston tr. P. d'Avity Estates 1101 Neere vnto this Island, about the exterior part, there are many blacke Whales seene, which commonly make warre together.
1744 A. Dobbs Acct. Countries adjoining Hudson's Bay 74 They had seen many black Whales, and other Fish.
1788 T. Jefferson in Papers (1958) XIV. 233 Brazil whale, or Black whale. Smallest of all. Found in same latitude with Spermaceti.
1831 in R. McNab Old Whaling Days (1913) i. 3 The black whales visit the bays and coasts of New Zealand for the purpose of calving.
1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack vi. 28 The sparmacitty don't take the harpoon quite so quietly as the black whale does.
1884 G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals 11 Globicephalus svineval,..also called Black Whale, Social Whale.
1954 W. B. Rhodes Whaling Jrnl. Introd. p. xvi, The pursuit in coastal waters of black whales was known as `bay whaling'.
1982 H. Morton Whale's Wake 23 The Southern right whale—usually called the black whale by the British—migrated to calve in New Zealand..bays.
black widow n. [after German Schwarze Witwe (1827 in the source translated in quot. 1831), itself after Kalmyk belvsn har < belvsn widow +har black; compare karakurt n.] (more fully black widow spider) any of various dangerously venomous spiders of the worldwide genusLatrodectus (family Theridiidae), the females of which are glossy black with red markings on the abdomen; esp. any of three species occurring in North America, formerly regarded as subspecies of L. mactans.In quot. 1830 perh.: L. tredecimguttatus of Eurasia.
1830 Cousin Elizabeth 193, I read an account of them in a book that papa looked out for me; they are called the black widow spiders, and though they do all this mischief the poor Cossacks think it a great crime to kill them.
1831 tr. H. A. Zwick Calmuc Tartary 37 Millepedes,..tarantula,..and the still more poisonous scorpion-spider, which the Calmucs call the black widow, (belbussun chàrra) are every where to be met with, and are much dreaded.
1915 Jrnl. Parasitology 1 107 The not-infrequent occurrence of the notorious ‘black widow’ spider, Latrodectes mactans, in the vicinity of Stanford University.
1954 F. C. Lane All about Insect World 55 Once crushed between them, even the deadly black widow spider is doomed.
2001 N. Jones Rough Guide Trav. Health ii. 361 The brown recluse is responsible for more bites than the black widow in the USA.
d. In the names of plants and fungi.See also black ash n.1, black bean n., black birch n., black-gum n., etc.
black alder n. (a) = alder buckthorn n. (now rare); (b) N. Amer. the winterberry, Ilex verticillata.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. lxxviij. 758 The blacke Aller groweth not lyke a tree, neyther waxeth it very great, but it bringeth foorth many long straight roddes, whiche doo diuide them selues agayne in other small twigges.
1640 J. Parkinson Theatrum Botanicum xxxvii. 240 The black Aller or Alder tree, riseth seldome to be of any great bignesse, but for the most part abideth like a hedge, bush or tree, spreading into branches.
1758 T. Hale et al. Compl. Body Husbandry (ed. 2) I. iv. xlix. 379 The black alder, whose berries are mixed among those of buckthorn at the markets, is a little shrub no way allied to the right alder, except in the shape of the leaf.
1803 A. F. M. Willich Domest. Encycl. (Amer. ed.) IV. 332/1 at Prinos, This tree is commonly called black alder, or Virginia winter-berry. It grows in moist places, generally sending up several slender stalks.
1882 Jrnl. Forestry July 178 The alder buckthorn, or black alder, as Rhamnus Frangula is more often called..gives off its branches alternately on either side of the stem.
1902 E. J. Parry & J. H. Coste Chem. Pigments 231 A similar but poorer green is prepared from the black alder (R. frangula) and the evergreen privet.
1973 Vermont Life Fall 44/1 Among shrubs and flowering plants within the swamp are mountain holly, withe rod, black alder..and starflower.
2008 B. Damrosch Garden Primer 634/2 One is winterberry (I. verticillata), also called black alder, which..bears bright red berries that remain on the twigs for a good part of the winter.
black bearberry n. a low-growing shrub, Arctostaphylos alpina, a native of high ground in northern Europe and North America with dark purple berries and white flowers.
1824 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 253 A[rbutus] alpina. Black Bear-berry.
1899 J. A. Lees Peaks & Pines xvii. 292 The black bearberry by itself furnishes shades of every colour, from dark myrtle green..to blood-red crimsons.
1994 E. C. Pielou Naturalist's Guide to Arctic v. 153 The leaves are thicker and more wrinkled in black bearberry and stay on the plant for several years.
black bent n. (a) a foxtail grass, Alopecurus myosuroides (formerly A. agrestis), common as a weed of cereal crops; (b) the red-top Agrostis gigantea, a perennial grass native to Europe and widely naturalized in North America.
1771 A. Young Farmer's Tour E. Eng. II. 414 From the middle of April till June, the black bent was fed with sheep, by lodging them in it from a common.
1821 S. F. Gray Nat. Arrangem. Brit. Plants II. 145 Vilfa nigra. Black bent.
1931 A. D. Hall Soil (ed. 4) x. 361 On cultivated land, the ‘black-bent’ grass (Alopecurus agrestis) and field mint (Mentha arvensis) are difficult to deal with.
1991 R. H. M. Langer & G. D. Hill Agric. Plants (ed. 2) iv. 85 Black bent or redtop (A. gigantea) is an arable weed in the main.
1995 Farmers Weekly 21 July 69/1 Cereal growers on Wold land suspect they have herbicide-resistant blackgrass in early spring should take a closer look—chances are it's black bent.
black cabbage n. [apparently after Italian cavolo nero cavolo nero n.] any of various dark-leaved varieties of cabbage or kale; spec. = cavolo nero n.
1855 H. D. Wolff Island Empire i. 28 They then prepare a supper of fish and herbs, amongst which it is indispensable that there should be some black cabbage and anchovies.
1883 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Nov. 487/2 What a charm there is in old monastic gardens,—..in the datura growing with the black cabbage, in the clematis beside the bean-stalks!
1906 E. Nesbit Railway Children i. 20 It looks more like a dripping-pan full of black cabbages.
1981 N.Y. Times 30 Sept. c6/2 He cooks with black cabbage, one of his risottos is made with clams.
2004 P. Mitchell Beautiful Bowl of Soup 94 She recommends using more than one type of cabbage, including the traditional black cabbage, if available.
black cherry n. (a) a dark-coloured sweet or sour cherry; esp. the fruit of any of several wild or cultivated varieties of the European Prunus avium or the North American P. serotina; (also) any of the trees which bear this fruit; (b) deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna, which has black cherry-like fruit (now rare).
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 198/2 Blacke chery, merise.
a1674 Milton Brief Hist. Moscovia (1682) i. 21 Black-cherry, or divers other Berries.
1779 St. James's Chron. 5–7 Aug. 4/1 A Lovely Girl,..in perfect Health, was seised after eating a Quantity of black Cherries (the small Kind) with a violent Pain at her Stomach.
1847 R. E. Griffith Med. Bot. 486 A. belladonna... Common Names.—Deadly Nightshade, Dwale, Black Cherry, Nightshade.
1898 G. Pinchot Adirondack Spruce 30 Black Cherry stands about midway in the scale of tolerance among the trees in the Park.
1918 National Druggist Nov. 449/1 Belladonna, known as Black Cherry, Doft Berry, Deadly Nighshade, grows wild in Europe and Western Asia.
1999 Bon Appétit May 88/1 To make kirsch, he and his godson..handpick sweet black cherries in the beginning of July, when the fruit is ripe.
2005 C. Fergus Trees of New Eng. 86 Black cherry is the largest tree among the North American cherry species.
black cinnamon n. †(a) = Winter's bark n. (obs.); (b) the aromatic Caribbean tree Pimenta racemosa (formerly P. acris) (family Myrtaceae) from which bay rum is made (now rare).
1584 A. Barlowe in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) iii. 729 The tree that beareth the rinde of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter brought from the Streights of Magellane, and many other of excellent smell, and qualitie.
1785 J. Adair Let. in A. Duncan Med. Comm. 9 208 Canella Alba. This is called here black cinnamon, and is not the true winter's bark, but, as a pure aromatic stimulant, is, I think, preferable.
1834 R. M. Martin Hist. Brit. Colonies II. i. 64 The Black cinnamon is generally found about fifty feet in height and two feet in diameter, and delighting in arid and barren soils.
1901 Jrnl. N.Y. Bot. Garden 2 141 A good specimen also represents Pimenta acris, the wild clove, or black cinnamon, a native of the West Indes [sic].
black cumin n. fennel flower, Nigella sativa, a plant producing small black seeds used as a spice; (also) (more fully black cumin seed) the seeds themselves; also called Roman coriander.
1648 H. Hexham Groot Woorden-boeck, Roomsche Coriander, romaine Coriander, or black Cummine-seed.
1678 J. Phillips tr. J.-B. Tavernier Indian Trav. ii. x. 131 in tr. J.-B. Tavernier Six Voy., Cumin White, eight Mamoudi's. Cumin Black, three Mamoudi's.
1714 Philos. Trans. 1713 (Royal soc.) 28 229 They smell to black Cummin-seed bruised and tyed up in a Nodule.
1878 R. W. Stevens Stowage of Ships (ed. 7) 563 Black cummin, the pungent seeds of the Nigella Sativa are used instead of pepper.
1906 Garden 6 Jan. 9/3 N. sativa (Black Cumin) is a tall-growing plant, with bluish flowers that have no involucre.
2002 P. Theroux Dark Star Safari (2003) v. 74 His boss had liked fruit juice, and preferred boiled black cumin to tea.
black dogwood n. any of several plants which resemble dogwood in some way; esp. (a) alder buckthorn, Rhamnus frangula, a native of Europe and introduced in North America; (b) Jamaican the Caribbean tree Piscidia carthaginensis (cf. dogwood n. 2) (rare).
[1801 Philos. Mag. 9 358 The wood made use of is either alder, willow, or (black) dog-wood.]
1803 C. Hutton tr. J. Ozanam & J. E. Montucla Recreations in Math. & Nat. Philos. III. x. i. 440 The charcoal found by experience to be fittest for the composition of gunpowder, is that made from the alder, willow, or black dog-wood.
1863 Technologist 3 57 Piscidia Carthaginensis, L. (Bitch Wood, or Black Dogwood of Jamaica)... This is largely used in Jamaica for wheels and carriages.
1882 Forestry 5 793 The underwood in this county is of considerable extent, and consists of hazel, ash, oak.., bird-cherry, or black dogwood (Prunus padus), copse elder, [etc.].
1907 E. Step Wayside & Woodland Trees 92 The wood made into charcoal is said to be the best for the purposes of the gunpowder makers, who know it by the name of Black Dogwood.
2003 Jrnl. Range Managem. 56 464/1 Ivy,..honeysuckle..and black dogwood (Frangula alnus); all of them are considered of high preference in herbivore diets.
2004 D. F. Austin Florida Ethnobotany 515/1 People call Piscidia the black mahoe (Trinidad, Tobago),..black dogwood (Jamaica), [etc.].
black fungus n. the cloud ear fungus, Auricularia polytricha; also called wood ear.
1904 China: Catal. Coll. Chinese Exhib. at Louisiana Purchase Exhib. 98 Vegetable products... Black fungus.
1979 J. Yueh Great Tastes Chinese Cooking 37 Dried Food Chinese mushrooms Tree ears (cloud ear or black fungus).
2006 City News (Brisbane) 7 Sept. 33/3 The mushrooms, including the king oyster, chestnut, black fungi, swiss brown..were rich in vitamin B.
black gooseberry n. any of several plants of the genus Ribes (cf. ribes n. 3) which bear dark-coloured fruit; the fruit itself; esp. †(a) the blackcurrant, R. nigrum (obs.); (b) a black variety of the gooseberry, R. grossularia; (c) N. Amer. the swamp gooseberry, R. lacustre.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball vi. xx. 682 The blacke Gooseberies are lyke to the aforesayde..sauing they be of a blacke colour... The second kinde is called Ribes nigrum, in English Blacke Gooseberies.
1732 R. Bradley Fruit Garden Display'd: June 16 The Round Black Goosberry. This Kind makes a Bush about three Foot high, and was raised from Seed at Mr. Whitmill's.
1829 W. Cobbett Eng. Gardener vi. §271, I regret the almost complete disappearance of the little smooth black gooseberry, and of the little hairy red gooseberry.
1890 Western Garden Dec. 50/2 We have an abundance of black and yellow currents and black gooseberries of good size and quality.
1947 A. G. Harvey Douglas of Fir 259 Ribes..divaricatum var. irriguum Rock or black gooseberry.
2002 C. Varner Plant Whistler Region 103 Black gooseberry is an armed shrub to 2m in height... The small, dark purple berries are bristly and hang in clusters.
black gram n. a drought-resistant legume which produces black seeds, Vigna mungo (formerly Phaseolus mungo) (family Fabaceae ( Leguminosae)), which is closely related to the mung and is widely grown in India and elsewhere in tropical Asia as a pulse.
1766 R. Stevens Compl. Guide East-India Trade 68 Surat Goods... Cotton Yarn, white. Black Gram. Indigo.
1863 Chambers's Encycl. V. 789/2 In some parts of India, one of the most esteemed kinds of pulse is the Moog, Moong, or Mungo..; in others, the Kala Moog, or Black Gram.
1908 Agric. Jrnl. India 3 236 For green and black gram (Phaseolus mungo), the best cultivators plough up the stubble, apply ashes, and secure a fine tilth before sowing the pulse crop.
2004 A. Green Beans 41/1 Black gram beans are especially popular in northern India, where they are cooked with ginger, onions, and butter to make a rich creamy purée.
black hellebore n. either of two hellebores formerly used medicinally, Helleborus officinalis and (now usually) the Christmas rose, H. niger; cf.melampodium n. 1.
[▸a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 1336 His [sc. Argol's] herbe, which is him betake, Is hote Eleborum the blake.]
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. lv. 947 Þe blak elebor is moche more perilous.
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 632 (MED), Of þe white elebre and of þe blacke.
?1550 H. Llwyd tr. Pope John XXI Treasury of Healthe sig. X.iiiiv, Cut the beast & put into the wound pouder of blacke Hellebore which wyth his propertie draweth out poysoned humors.
1601 R. Chester Dialogue in Loves Martyr 85 There is blacke Hellebore cald Melampodium.
1730 J. Bradstreet Farmers Request 20, I cut a Hole, and put in two or three Roots of black Hellebore, in the outside of the Thigh, about 7 or 8 Inches below the Round-bone.
1875 H. C. Wood Treat. Therapeutics (1879) 536 Black Hellebore has been used by some as a purgative emmenagogue, but is now very rarely if ever employed.
1959 P. O'Brian Unknown Shore iii. 83 They browsed among the tinctures, linctuses and throches, mixing themselves small personal prescriptions—mandragora, opium, black hellebore.
2005 D. Burke Compl. Burke's Backyard 156/2 H. niger. The black hellebore. This name refers to the plant's black roots. It's flowers are white.
black horehound n. a strongly scented European plant, Ballota nigra (cf. Ballota n.), with rough-textured hairy leaves and whorls of small red-purple flowers around the stem, formerly (and sometimes still) used medicinally.
1538 T. Elyot Dict. Table Correct. sig. A.vv/1, Apiastrum, rede an herbe, whiche hath leaues lyke to blacke horehound, but greatter.
?1610 J. Fletcher Faithfull Shepheardesse ii. sig. D1, The Clote..And this blacke Horehound, both are very good.
1722 J. Miller Botanicum Officinale 286 The Black Horehound grows taller, and more branched than the White, having square hairy Stalks, and larger darker Leaves.
1902 Longman's Mag. Nov. 59 Scattered along the lonely waste are plants of the black mullein, and the stinking black horehound.
2008 P. Taylor Irish Country Village (2009) 67 They walked along a path of uneven concrete slabs where grass and clumps of black horehound had forced their way through the cracks.
black ipecacuanha n. now rare any of several plants used as a substitute for ipecacuanha; esp. the tropical American plant Psychotria emetica(family Rubiaceae), which has black roots; (also) a preparation made from any of these plants, used as an emetic.
[1730 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 152 Of the true Ipecacuanha I have four Kinds, Black, Brown, Grey, and White.]
1812 J. Stokes Bot. Materia Medica I. 368 Black ipecacuanha.
1850 M. Kirby Flora Leics. 16 P[olygala] glandulosa in China, is called black ipecacuanha, from its emetic powers.
1928 Gardeners' Chron. 5 May 314/2 P. emetica is grown for its roots, which produce Black ipecacuanha, one of the many substitutes for the true Ipecacuanha drug.
black ironwood n. any of several tropical and subtropical trees having dark-coloured, extremely dense and durable wood; spec. Krugiodendron ferreum (family Rhamnaceae) of tropical America, and any of several olives of southern Africa, including Olea laurifolia and O. capensis; (also) the wood of any of these trees.
1780 R. Weston Suppl. Eng. Flora 40 Sideroxylon..Black Ironwood.
1796 C. R. Hopson tr. C. P. Thunberg Trav. (ed. 3) II. 109 Black iron wood [Ger. das schwarze Eisenholz]..is hard and strong; it is used for axle-trees and the poles of waggons.
1868 R. J. Mann Colony Natal xx. 161 It is well worth considering whether it might not also be advisable to plant some of the more valuable kinds of native trees, such as the..black iron-wood, and red milk-wood.
1939 Florida (Federal Writers' Project) iii. 328 On the keys grow 27 varieties of hardwood, some so heavy they will not float in water—notably, the madeira, tamarind,..and black ironwood.
2011 S. D. Jewell Exploring Wild South Florida (ed. 4) 196/1 You'll see..black ironwood, Jamaica dogwood, and paradise-tree.
black kale n. [after Italian cavolo nero cavolo nero n.] = cavolo nero n.; cf. black cabbage n.
1990 N.Y. Times 30 May c1/3 Instead of grass, big florid clumps of Chinese giant red mustard grow next to the driveway, along with Italian black kale and mitsuba, a pungent Oriental green.
2003 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 22 June 27 Bring a large pot of water to boil, drop in black kale and cook for five to six minutes.
black knapweed n. common knapweed, Centaurea nigra, which has dark purple flowers.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. ccxxxviii. 588 Matfellon or blacke Knapweede, is doubtlesse a kinde of Scabious.
1766 Museum Rusticum VI. 451 Common, or Black Knapweed... The root is hard, thick, and woody.
1853 A. Pratt Wild Flowers II. 160 The Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is an equally common flower, and is easily known by its smaller blossoms, which are also of a much less vivid purple colour.
1905 Country-side 29 July 180/3 The black Knapweed, which raises its dark, ripening flowerheads above the short-stalked barley falls before the cutters with the crop which it infests.
2007 S. Falconer Pentland Hills 48 The wildflower meadow has developed over the years, with a profusion of black knapweed, red campion.., and ox-eye daisies catching the breeze.
black larch n. N. Amer. the tamarack, Larix laricina, a North American larch; also called red larch.
1752 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 6) at Larix, There are two Varieties of the Larch-tree: one of them is brought from North America, and is called the Black Larch; the other came from Archangel.
1885 C. Y. Michie Larch (new ed.) i. 2 The Larix pendula, or black larch, is not so generally known in this country as it ought to be.
1917 Nature-Study Rev. 13 342 Our commonest form is the American larch or tamarack, also called hackatack, black larch and red larch.
2007 Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) (Nexis) 1 July g2 [The tamarack is] sometimes referred to as the Eastern larch, black larch, American larch, red larch or as biologists so fondly call it, Larix laricina.
black locust n. the North American false acacia, Robinia pseudoacacia, having thorny branches and dense clusters of white heavily-scented flowers and widely grown as an ornamental and formerly as a timber tree; (also) the heavy, durable wood of this tree, used esp. for fencing and shipbuilding; also called locust tree; cf. robinia n.
1792 H. Toulmin Descr. Kentucky 75 The soil is deep and black, and the natural growth, large walnuts, honey and black locust, poplar, elm, hickory, sugar tree, &c.
1822 J. Flint Lett. from Amer. 229 The black locust is strong, heavy, not much subject to warping.
1861 All Year Round 2 Feb. 401/2 This is the black locust; mark the fruit hanging down in great black pods, like enormous scarlet-runners gone to seed.
1908 Proc. Amer. Railway Engin. Assoc. 9 731 Black locust is a hard wood, durable in contact with the soil.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees ix. 186 Best known is R. pseudacacia, otherwise known as the false acacia or black locust, which was introduced to Europe in the 1700s and selected for the navy.
black lovage n. the plant alexanders, Smyrnium olusatrum, which has black seeds.
1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. G.iiij, Smyrnium..maye be called in englishe blacke Louage.
1918 Gardeners' Chron. 19 Oct. 155/2 The various competitors for sharing the name..Sea Lovage, or Scotch Parsley, Ligusticum scoticum; Black Lovage, or Alexanders, Smyrnium Olusatrum; [etc.].
1936 E. S. Rohde Herbs & Herb Gardening viii. 98 The seeds when ripe are almost black and hence the popular name, Black Lovage.
1982 K. N. Sanecki Discovering Herbs (ed. 3) 17 Smyrnium olusatrum (Umbelliferae) Alisanders, black lovage, black pot herb... The mop heads of flowers resemble those of angelica so strongly that sometimes the two plants are confused.
black mangrove n. a kind of mangrove, Avicennia germinans (or A. nitida), of tropical America and Africa which has rough dark-coloured bark and pneumatophores rather than prop roots (also called olive mangrove); (formerly also) the red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle (rare).
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World iii. 54 The black Mangrove is the largest Tree.
1762 Amer. Gazetteer I. at Roca Islands, The east end of the island is overgrown with black mangrove trees.
1871 C. Kingsley At Last II. xiii. 211 The common Rhizophoras, or black mangroves.
1880 Bot. Gaz. 5 58, I have never seen the black Mangrove (Avicennia tomentosa) grow to a greater size and height than along Jupiter Narrows.
1907 J. E. Rogers Tree Bk. liii. 402 The Black Mangrove (Avicennia nitida, Jacq.) is an ever-blooming tree, with inconspicuous white flowers.
2010 D. Wells Lives Trees 206 Black mangroves grow in shallower waters farther inland than red mangroves. The bark of a mature black mangrove is black.
black maple n. a kind of maple, Acer nigrum, of the central and eastern United States and south-east Canada, which is closely related to the sugar maple and similarly used for timber and syrup production; (formerly also) †the sugar maple, A. saccharum (obs.); cf. black sugar maple n.
1751 Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar 12 145 Sugar-maple, Sugartree, Sugarwood, Black maple, Hard maple.
1836 Family Mag. Apr. 178/2 The black-maple flourishes in more southern and warmer climates, and is found on the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi.
1919 N. C. Brown Forest Products 379 In Vermont the black maple is commonly considered superior to the sugar maple as a producer of high quality as well as large quantity of sap.
2007 Jrnl. Hydrol. 341 117/2 Vegetation on ridgetops and hillslopes was dominated by deciduous trees including sugar maple (Acer saccharum), black maple (Acer nigrum), American beech (Fagus grandiflora).
black masterwort n. see masterwort n.
black mechoacan n. now hist. and rare a kind of jalap obtained from the tuberous root of a Mexican climbing plant, Ipomoea purga; (also) the plant itself.
1633 T. Johnson Gerard's Herball (new ed.) ii. cccxxii. 873 It is called by those of Alexandria and Marscilles Ialapium or Gelapum: and of those of Marseilles it is thought the blacke or male Mechoacan.
1687 tr. P. Barbette Thes. Chirurgiæ (ed. 4) 8 Medicines that purge Phlegm. The Roots of Asarum, Mechoacan white and black, Hellebore, Colocinth, Myrabolani, [etc.].
1708 Hist. Wks. Learned Apr. 215 Mr. Linder puts also in this rank Gumma-gutta, Euphorbium, Scammony.., the Plant named the Passion-flower, or black Mechoacan, commonly called Jalap.
1874 F. A. Flückiger & D. Hanbury Pharmacographia i. 398 Thus jalap which at that period used to be imported cut into transverse slices, was termed from its darker colour, Black Mechoacan.
1911 J. U. Lloyd Hist. Veg. Drugs 52 Owing to this confusion between the two bulbs, one was called black mechoacan, while the other was known as white jalap.
black medick n. a small yellow-flowered medick of grassland, Medicago lupulina, with compressed black pods, sometimes grown for fodder; also called nonsuch.
[1756 J. Hill Brit. Herbal 312/2 (heading) Black-fruited Medick.]
1778 W. Hudson Flora Anglica (rev. ed.) I. 331 Anglis, black Medick, or Nonesuch.
1864 M. Plues Rambles in Search of Wild Flowers (ed. 2) 83 The Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)..grows abundantly among low herbage, and about the entrance of corn fields.
1948 G. D. H. Bell Cultivated Plants of Farm xii. 97 Quick-growing annuals occupy the place of a catch crop and can be used for folding or cutting green as with black medick and crimson clover.
2006 Org. Gardening Apr.–May 18/1 Black medic..and clover thrive in nitrogen-poor soils.
black moss n. now rare Spanish moss, Tillandsia usneoides, an epiphyte found from the southern United States to South America.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 206 The black Moss that hangs on the Trees in Carolina..is sometimes above six Foot long.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. v. 34 We have two or three flowering air-plants in the Southern States,..one of them is..the Long-Moss, or Black Moss, so called.
1904 Bot. Gaz. 38 99 Tillandsia usneoides, popularly called ‘long moss’, ‘black moss’, or ‘Spanish moss’, is the most widely distributed representative of the..family Bromeliaceae.
black mustard n. see mustard n. 2.
black nightshade n. a Eurasian nightshade, Solanum nigrum, with greenish-white flowers and black berries.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 682 The blacke night-shade is present destruction vnto them.
1783 Encycl. Brit. X. 8204/2 The common black nightshade grows wild in gardens, fields, and dunghills, in this country; and becoming a troublesome weed, is rarely cultivated.
1843 Sat. Mag. 27 May 200/1 The Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum) also springs up wherever a spot of ground is suffered to become waste.
2009 Daily News (New Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 13 Mar. (Gardening section) 12 The plant that is the subject of most inquiries to the National Poison Centre is the black nightshade; in particular, its berries.
black oak n. chiefly N. Amer. any of several oak trees valued for their timber; esp. dyer's oak, Quercus velutina, of eastern North America, which has dark-coloured bark (cf. quercitron n.); (also) the timber of any of these trees.
[1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect i. v. 16 Of Oakes there be three kindes, the red Oake, white, and blacke.]
1659 in Early Rec. Town Portsmouth (Rhode Island) (1901) 377 Fortie fower acres of land..bounded..with a littel black Oake.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 92 The next is Black Oak, which is esteem'd a durable Wood, under Water.
1882 Econ. Geol. Illinois II. 105 Some regular post-oak flats..covered with post oak and black jack, and a few black-oak.
2005 C. Fergus Trees New Eng. 193 Black Oak can be difficult to distinguish from northern red oak, with which it freely hybridizes.
† black oak fern n. Obs. black spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball iii. lxii. 404 Dryopteris nigra, Blacke Oke Ferne.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. cdliii. 975 This is called of divers of the later Herbarists Drypoteris nigra, or blacke Oke Ferne, of the likenes that it hath with Drypoteris, which we haue called in English Oke Ferne.
1710 W. Salmon Botanologia I. cclx. 354/2 The third [kind of oak fern], or Black Oak Fern, is both Male and Female.
black oat n. any of several dark-hulled kinds of cultivated oat; esp. the European diploid species Avena strigosa, now chiefly grown for animal fodder and as a cover crop.Recorded earliest as an element in field names denoting land where black oats have been sown.
c1200 in A. H. Smith Place-names Westmorland (1967) I. 49 Blachateridding.
1450 in K. Cameron Place-names Derbyshire (1959) II. 435 Blakeoteacre.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandrie §14 There be .iii. maner of otes, that is to saye, redde otes, blacke otes, and roughe otes.
?1609 G. Chapman tr. Homer Twelue Bks. Iliads v. sig. L, Two horse to euery one, That eat white Barley and blacke Otes, and do no good at all.
1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman Feb. xiii. 74 Nor does the Black-oat peel the Ground, so much as the White-oat does.
1880 A. J. Warden Angus or Forfarshire iv. xii. 182 In former times the bearded variety, commonly called black oats, was most largely sown, but they have been supplanted..by the common oats.
1910 F. L. Stevens & J. G. Hall Dis. Econ. Plants 350 In California black oats are reputed to be less subject to rust than white oats.
2001 New Scientist 3 Feb. 17/2 They fight weeds by planting winter crops such as black oats.
black olive n. (a) the fruit of the olive tree, Olea europaea, when ripe and purple-black; cf. olive n.1 2a; (b) a tropical American tree, Bucida buceras (family Combretaceae), the fruit of which resembles an olive.
1567 H. Granthan tr. Boccaccio Pleasaunt Disport Diuers Noble Personages iv. f. 19, The dry bough began to waxe greene, and within a while after to beare leaues, & not long after,..it was laden with blacke Olives.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. ii. ii. 106, I remember wee had blacke Oliues, which I had neuer seene before, and they were of a most pleasant taste.
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. ii. 221 This tree is called the Black-Olive in Jamaica.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. 177/2 The Olive-bark, or Black Olive of Jamaica, produces wood which is valuable on account of its not being liable to the attacks of insects.
1939 Times 27 Mar. 17/4 Serve with crisp toast and a salad of shredded celery and black olives.
2007 Claims Mag. (Nexis) Nov. (Iconoclast section) 94 Other popular trees, such as the Black Olive, have low wind resistance.
black oyster plant n. see oyster plant n. 2.
black parsley n. †(a) stone parsley, Sison amomum (obs.); (b) a shrubby umbelliferous plant native to Madeira, Melanoselinum decipiens, which has black seed heads.
1562 W. Turner 2nd Pt. Herball f. 139v, Sison..is called of som black perselye.
1827 R. Sweet Sweet's Hortus Britannicus 190 Melanoselinum. H. Black-parsley.
1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 3 A shrubby plant of this Order is now introduced into our gardens, called the Black Parsley.
1905 Encycl. Americana XV. at Thapsia, T. decipiens is the black parsley of Madeira, with a thick umbrella, or palm-like, crown of finely-cut foliage three or four feet across.
2007 B. P. Lawton Parsleys, Fennels, & Queen Anne's Lace viii. 125 Melanoselinum decipiens (black parsley)... This biennial native of Madeira grows up to 8 feet..tall or more.
black pear n. (more fully black pear of Worcester) a large yellowish and russet cooking pear which is depicted in sable (black) on the coat of arms of Worcester, England; also called black Worcester.
1666 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense (ed. 2) 45 Black-pear of Worcester Surrein.
1755 H. Glasse Art of Cookery (ed. 5) xxi, Yellow late Pear, Black Pear, White Nutmeg late Pear.
1876 Country 21 Dec. 556/3 The Black Pear of Worcester and Verulam are also often used for stewing and preserving.
2003 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 6 Sept. 48 The Worcester Pearmain, as famous in its time as Worcester's own black pears.
black peppercorn n. see peppercorn n. 1a.
black pine n. (a) any of several kinds of pine tree, esp. Pinus nigra of southern Europe and P. thunbergii of Japan; (b) = matai n.1
1683 J. Pettus Ess. Metallick Words at Pitch, in Fleta Minor ii, The white Pine yieldeth a white Gum, the Pitch or black Pine, a black Gum.
1788 T. Jefferson Let. 9 Aug. in Garden Bk. (1999) 140 Pinus picea. Black pine or pitch pine.
1851 Lyttelton (N.Z.) Times 28 June 6 The timber in [the groves] is chiefly Kaikatea, (white pine), Mahi, (black pine), Remu, (red pine)..and Totara.
1900 A. H. Kent Veitch's Man. Coniferæ (new ed.) 383 Pinus Thunbergi... Japanese black pine.
1914 Park & Cemetery Mar. 15/2 The Austrian, or black pine of Europe does well on the prairies and is the best looking hardy pine.
1987 K. Rushforth Tree Planting & Managem. (1990) 191/2 Japanese black pine..is more tolerant than most trees of sea spray.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees v. 119 The matai is better for timber—known to the timber trade as ‘black pine’, and to botanists as Prumnopitys taxifolia.
black plum n. (a) any of several plum trees with dark-coloured fruit; the fruit of any of these trees; (now rare); (b) any of several other trees with dark-coloured plum-like fruit; esp. a small tree of eastern Australia, Diospyros australis (family Ebenaceae).
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole iii. xiii. 576 The Barberry plum is a great early blacke plum.
1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 106 The English large black Plum thrives well, as does the Cherry, being grafted thereon.
1837 W. Darlington Flora Cestrica 287 Numerous varieties of this [sc. Prunus domestica] are cultivated, here; but, with the exception of the Damascene, or black plum, the crop of fruit is very uncertain.
1855 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 7 Dec. 34/2 For spokes, poles, &c.—cargillia Australis (black plum).
1902 Nature 13 Nov. 47/2 The ‘black plum’ of Lord Howe Island..is shown to be new and described under the name Cryptocarpa Gregsoni.
1922 16th Ann. Rep. Hort. Soc., 1921 (Ontario Dept. Agric.) 47 The Black Plum, Prunus nigra, which is a common arborescent bush, or small tree in northern Ontario, is a beautiful object in bloom.
1993 G. Williams & T. Evans Hidden Rainforests 163/1 Yellow Persimmon or Black Plum Diospyros australis (Ebenaceae), is widely distributed in all rainforest types within the Manning.
black poplar n. a Eurasian poplar tree, Populus nigra, of which there are a number of cultivated varieties including the Lombardy poplar.
1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca, Populus, a tree callyd a popular, wherof one is callyd whyte poplar, whose stemme is long and playne.., the other is callyd blacke poplar, whyche hathe the barke rough, and fewer leaues than the whyte.
1597 W. Langham Garden of Health 504 The leaues & yong buds of blacke Poplar, stampt & applied, swageth the paine of the gout.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) xviii. §1. 80 The Black Poplar is frequently pollar'd when as big as ones arm, eight or nine foot from the ground.
1786 Gentleman's Mag. 56 i. 456 They make corks of the parenchyma, the second bark of the black poplar.
1859 W. S. Coleman Our Woodlands 76 Early in spring, when the branches of the Black Poplar are yet leafless, they are loaded with..a profusion of deep red catkins.
1952 P. Mann Systematics Flowering Plants ii. 140 Black Poplar may reach a height of 100 feet.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 134/1 Once you have an eye for them, it is hard to believe that mature black-poplars could ever have been mistaken for any of their characterless hybrids.
black poppy n. [after classical Latin nigrum papāver] a variety of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, with purple flowers and dark seeds; cf. white poppy n. at white adj. Special uses 1b(b).
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 242, Of the commune [popy], som is whyte, and..sum is blak..blak popy is good..in medicynes.
c1450 Med. Recipes (BL Add. 33996) in F. Heinrich Mittelengl. Medizinbuch (1896) 230 (MED), Tak burgenus of popeler..blak pope, & leues of mandrake, [etc.].
1575 J. Banister Needefull Treat. Chyrurg. sig. Oiii, Opium, The iuyce of black Poppie dried, colde and drie in the fourth degree, stupefactiue, and mortificatiue.
1662 J. A. Comenius Janua Linguarum Trilinguis xii. 21/1 The head of a black poppy being wounded (gasht) distilleth Opium, which hath the power to make men sleep.
1742 C. Owen Ess. Nat. Hist. Serpents i. vii. 21 The Turks take Opium..without any Preparation, it being merely the Juice of black Poppy, dried in the Sun, without any purification.
1878 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 22 59 The plants I saw were not the black poppy, but variously coloured, red, purple, &c., and apparently very healthy plants.
1998 Times (Nexis) 21 Nov., Last year, out of 15 square metres of black poppies, there was not one seedhead left at the end of the season.
black radish n. a black-skinned cultivar of the radish, Raphanus sativus, with peppery white flesh; also called Spanish radish.
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 463 For the blacke Reddish..the nature thereof is to runne vp to seede more speedily then the other.
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Raphanus, Great round black Radish, commonly call'd The Spanish Radish.
1869 S. Robinson Facts for Farmers I. v. 492 For winter use, the Spanish, or Black radish, of a sort called Rose-colored China, is sown in the fall, and gathered before freezing.
1919 U. P. Hedrick Sturtevant's Notes Edible Plants 487 Round Black Radish. This is a turnip-rooted or round form of a black radish.
2000 Esquire Dec. 155/2 His carpaccio of venison with black radishes and lemon oil has a perfect balance of gaminess and tang.
black raspberry n. N. Amer. = black cap n. 5.
1759 J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 452 We have four kinds of ye Rubus beside our common black rasberry.
1860 R. Hogg Fruit Man. 262 Black Cap... This is the Rubus occidentalis, called Black Raspberry or Thimbleberry by the Americans. The fruit has a fine brisk acid flavour, and is much used in America for pies and puddings.
1930 Pop. Mech. Aug. 257/1 Fruit growers are interested in a wild variety of black raspberry which was found in the Oregon woods.
1998 Chicago Daily Herald (Nexis) 28 Oct. 3 Unlike their musical friends, their jam sessions typically result in the real thing—jars and jars of homemade black raspberry, strawberry and peach jams.
black rice n. any of several varieties of rice with a dark-coloured husk.
1528 T. Paynell tr. Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano Regimen Sanitatis Salerni sig. Pij, And speciallye suche as haue moche huske, as beanes and blacke ryce. Also the huske of them all norysheth worse than the pithe within.
1701 J. Collier tr. L. Moréri Great Hist. Dict. (ed. 2) II. at Onor, Here is Pepper much heavier than the common, and black Rice that is far better than the white.
1837 Madras Jrnl. Lit. & Sci. Jan. 97 Krishen Sall—this is a coarser description of rice, and rather dark. It is called the black rice, and sells about twenty-two seers for the rupee.
1923 Inventory Seeds & Plants Imported (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 26 Black rice, much liked as a breakfast food by the Europeans in Chiengmai. When boiled it is deep purple and has a very fine nutty flavor.
2008 M. Simmons Things Cooks Love v. 165 Black rice can be short grain with a sticky texture or medium grain and not sticky.
black root n. (a) any of various North American medicinal plants with dark-coloured roots; esp. a kind of speedwell, Veronicastrum virginicum, native to moist ground in the eastern United States; (also) the root (or a preparation of the root) of any of these plants; (b) any of various plant diseases accompanied by a blackening of the roots.
1709 W. Byrd Diary 13 Feb. (1941) 4, I sent him some blackroot..for the gripes.
1843 T. Talbot Jrnl. 8 Sept. (1931) 45 We traded some Kooyah or Black root,..a black, sticky, suspicious looking compound, of very disagreeable odor.
1851 C. Cist Sketches & Statistics Cincinnati 211 Concentrated extracts of vegetable medical articles..such as..leptandrin or black-root extracts.
1917 Michigan Crop Rep. July 6 Very heavy rain on June 27th, land nearly all flooded, corn very small, sugar beets have blackroot.
1933 J. K. Small Man. Southeastern Flora 1400 Pterocaulon... Black-root... The thick black root gives this plant its common name.
1988 R. Mabey Compl. New Herbal 112/3 Veronicastrum virginicum... Black root... This is a bitter root which when dried acts as a gentle laxative and liver tonic.
2003 G. Loebenstein & G. Thottappilly Virus & Virus-like Dis. Major Crops xvii. 428 ‘Black root’ is a lethal systemic necrosis that affects common bean cultivars.
† black rubber vine n. Obs. rare a West African plant producing a black sap which is used as rubber.
1887 C. A. Moloney Sketch Forestry W. Afr. 90 The black-rubber vine, known to the natives as ‘Duah Kurrie’, grows in even greater profusion than the white, but its juice is not collected.
† black rue n. N.Z. Obs. (also black rue pine) = matai n.1
1864 3rd Ann. Rep. Acclimatisation Soc. Victoria 35 Nageia (Podocarpus) spicata, Br. Black Rue of New Zealand. Tree 80 feet high; wood pale, soft, close and durable.
1871 Otago (Dunedin, N.Z.) Witness 27 May 5/1 The black rue pine (Podocarpus spicata) is another useful timber tree.
black sage n. (a) any of several tropical American shrubs used (esp. formerly) medicinally; esp. Cordia curassavica (family Boraginaceae); (b)U.S. either of two blue-flowered plants of the family Lamiaceae ( Labiatae) native to western North America, Trichostema lanatum and Salvia mellifera, both important as honey plants.
[1750 G. Hughes Nat. Hist. Barbados vi. 159 (heading) The Black Sage-bush.]
1759 W. Hillary Observ. Changes Air & Dis. Barbados 313 If the Humours are carried to and affect the Head, bathing their Feet in a warm Decoction of Viburnium (called black Sage here) and Vesicatories must be applied.
1874 Overland Monthly Dec. 524/2 The ridges between these dry washes are..covered more thickly with the aromatic bitter Indian wormwood, or black sage.
1917 Domest. Beekeeper 1 Jan. 20/2 Salvia Mellifera—Black Sage.., found as far north as San Francisco, southward and southern California.
1985 J. Carew in S. Brown & J. Wickham Oxf. Bk. Caribbean Short Stories (1999) 102 A pair of bluesakees were playing mating games in a low thicket of black sage and ants bush.
2001 D. Weintraub Monterey Bay Trails 78 On a sandy, rocky track cross a hillside of coastal scrub, mostly black sage.
black sapote n. the edible fruit of a kind of evergreen ebony tree, Diospyros digyna, with white flesh which turns dark brown when ripe; (also) the tree which bears this fruit, native to Mexico and Central America.
1872 Rep. Explor. & Surv. Ship-canal (U.S. Navy Dept.) 120 The black sapote is a delicious fruit, resembles the apricot, except that its skin is of a rusty color, and the central seed is very large and black.
1920 W. Popenoe Man. Trop. & Subtrop. Fruits xi. 370 In the Mexican lowlands the black sapote, if grown on deep, rich, and moist soil, becomes a large and handsome tree.
2007 Seattle (Washington) Post-Intelligencer (Nexis) 10 Mar. 13 What sets the black sapote apart from any other fruit I know is its light but distinct chocolate flavor.
black-seed n. now rare = black medick n.
1763 J. Mills New Syst. Pract. Husbandry III. 343 The smaller kind of this, commonly called none-such, or black-seed, is the Trifolium luteum, lupulinum, minimum.
1863 R. C. A. Prior On Pop. Names Brit. Plants 24 Black-seed, the Nonesuch, from its black head of legumes.
1922 Amer. Botanist 28 71 Perhaps..‘black nonesuch’ and ‘black grass’ may refer to its disreputable qualities though ‘black-seed’ seems to put the emphasis elsewhere.
black snakeroot n. chiefly N. Amer. any of several North American plants with a medicinal root or rhizome; spec. (a) black cohosh, Actaea racemosa (sometimes called Cimicifuga racemosa); (b) any of several sanicles, esp. Sanicula marilandica.
1698 G. Thomas Hist. Acct. Pensilvania 19 There grows also in great plenty the Black Snake-Root, (fam'd for its sometimes preserving, but often curing the Plague).
1751 J. Hill Hist. Materia Medica xxxv. 611 Snakeroot is frequently..adulterated with the Roots of the Plant call'd Virginian Asarum or black Snakeroot, but this is easily discovered, the Roots of that Plant being black.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. at Ducksfoot, Black snakeroot, or Mayapple.
1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingdom 380 Sanicula marilandica, called in the United States Black Snakeroot.
1900 N. Blanchan Nature's Garden 224 The Sanicle or Black Snakeroot..lifts spreading, two to four rayed umbels of insignificant-looking but interesting greenish-white florets.
2002 T. Boland et al. Michigan Gardener's Guide (rev. ed.) 110/1 For handsome foliage and lofty flowers, black snakeroot, Cimicifuga racemosa, is a dramatic choice.
black soybean n. a variety of soybean with a black skin that is high in protein and low in carbohydrate; (also) the plant that yields this bean.
1895 Useful Plants Japan (Agric. Soc. Japan) i. 5 Glysine hispida, Moench, Black soy-bean..; an annual leguminous plant cultivated in ordinary dry land... The beans have a black skin.
1976 Lima (Ohio) News 16 Sept. d8/4 The review will also have a colonial garden in which flax, open pollinated corn and black soybeans grown in the early days of America have been planted.
2004 R. Rosedale & C. Colman Rosedale Diet vi. 90 Black soybeans are a type of soybean that is especially high in fiber and protein.
2008 N.Y. Mag. 27 Oct. 54/2 We had high hopes for kuromame—a black soybean-flavored candy—but nobody liked it.
black spleenwort n. either of two small ferns commonly found on rocks and walls, maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, and (now more usually) the Eurasian fern A. adiantum-nigrum, which has triangular fronds with a dark base to the stem.
1777 S. Robson Brit. Flora 286 Asplenium Trichomanes... Black Spleenwort. English black Maidenhair. Leaves pinnate... On moist rocks and old walls.
1840 E. Newman Hist. Brit. Ferns (1844) 255 The Black Spleenwort..occurs on rocks as a native habitat.
1901 Hist. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club 17 271 In the moist crevices a profusion of Aspenium trichomanes, the black spleenwort. Nowhere have I seen more beautiful forms of this elegant fern.
1995 Guardian 5 Dec. i. 12/7 The black spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum)..gets its name from the black stalks that can often be as long as the leafy fronds.
black spruce n. a small spruce tree, Picea mariana, of Canada and the northern United States; (also) the wood of this tree, now chiefly used for pulp and paper.
1741 P. Collinson Let. 25 Feb. in J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 151 Look out sharp for the Balm of Gilead Firs, & Black, Red & White Spruce as Mr. Dudley Calls them.
1838 J. C. Loudon Arboretum IV. cxiii. 2313 The branches spread more in a horizontal than in a drooping direction, like those of the Norway spruce; and, consequently, the black spruce..has not the gloomy aspect of the European tree.
1900 H. L. Keeler Our Native Trees 472 The Black Spruce is essentially a Canadian tree growing abundantly in the Labrador peninsula and forming great forests in Manitoba.
2003 D. Bennet & T. Tiner Wild Woods Guide 284/1 Black spruce can make-do-with-less better than all the trees which crowd it out in good soils.
black sugar maple n. = black maple n.
1831 J. Holbrook et al. Sci. Tracts I. 203 Black Sugar Maple. A tree somewhat resembling the sugar maple..grows in Virginia.
1897 Meehan's Monthly Dec. 233/1 The Acer nigrum, or Black Sugar Maple, has the leaves of a dark green color on both sides.
2006 E. Small Culinary Herbs (ed. 2) 89 This distinctive form of sugar maple is known as black maple and black sugar maple, and is often recognized as a separate species.
black tang n. chiefly Sc. (now rare) bladderwrack, Fucus vesiculosus.
1796 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XVII. 233* The sea-oak (Fucus vesiculosus, Lin.), which we denominate black tang.
1874 Trans. Highland & Agric. Soc. Scotl. 6 64 Sea wrack (F. vesiculosus), known by the name of ‘sea oak’, or ‘black tang’, is found a little above low-water mark.
1978 A. Fenton Northern Isles viii. 64 The types of seaweed preferred for kelp were the wracks, Fucus and Ascophyllum, known by such names as, for example, yellow, black and prickly tang.
black truffle n. any of several dark-coloured kinds of truffle (genus Tuber); esp. the valuable Perigord truffle, Tuber melanosporum.
1702 J. K. tr. F. Massialot Court & Country Cook 202 The Breasts of the Partridges, or other Fowls, must be cover'd with Slices of black Truffles, and all dispos'd of in good order.
1838 Times 15 Dec. 8/2 (advt.) The nobility and gentry are respectfully informed, that a weekly supply of the fresh Black Truffle is received at Morel's.
1917 J. Y. Norton Mrs. Norton's Cook-bk. ii. 305 The black truffle has the highest repute and its consumption is enormous.
2007 G. Brennan Pig in Provence iii. 99 The object of their desire is the black truffle... It looks like a lump of coal or a large dog's nose, dark and rough to the touch.
black trumpet n. the edible dark-coloured fruiting body of the fungus Craterellus cornucopioides (family Cantharellaceae), found chiefly in woodland habitats in North Temperate areas.
1979 G. Kibby Mushrooms & Toadstools 23 Many other edible fungi can also be recommended among which the best are..the Black Trumpets, or Horn of Plenty, Craterellus cornucopioides.
1996 Time Out N.Y. 26 June 18/2 Tasty mushrooms tend to be given romantic names, such as chanterelles, summer boletes, black trumpets and hens of the woods.
2008 D. Waltuck & A. Friedman Chanterelle 177 Black trumpets are thought of as a poor man's truffle in Europe, but I've always liked their earthy, nutty flavor.
black walnut n. †(a) (also black walnut tree) the common walnut tree, Julglans regia (obs. rare); (b) any of a group of North and South American walnut trees producing four-chambered nuts with indehiscent hulls, esp. Juglans nigra, chiefly of eastern and central areas; (also) the heavy dark-coloured timber of any of these trees; freq. with distinguishing word.
1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Geogr. Hist. Afr. iii. 137 Such slippers as are accounted most fine and costly are made of blacke and white mulberie-tree, of blacke walnut-tree, and of the Iujubatree.
1612 R. Johnson New Life Virginea sig. B3, They cut downe wood for wanscot, blacke walnut tree, Spruce, Cedar & Deale.
1754 M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina I. 67 The Black Walnut. Most parts of the Northern Continent of America, abound with these Trees, particularly Virginia and Maryland.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. (1866) 153 Heart-wood..is generally of a different color,..brown in Black-Walnut, black in Ebony, etc.
1910 W. L. Jepson Silva Calif. 195 The California Black Walnut and Eastern Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) are often grown near each other in cultivation, especially as street trees.
1942 E. Ferber Saratoga Trunk i. 5 They say the tube and the loo and the washstand are all boxed in black walnut.
2002 Country Life 19 Dec. 82/2 Summer visitors sit under a magnificent black walnut, Juglans nigra, admirable as a shade-caster.
black wattle n. either of two Australian acacias, Acacia binervata, and (now usually) A. mearnsii, which is native to southern Australia but widely grown elsewhere, chiefly as a source of tannin and timber or to prevent soil erosion, in some cases becoming an invasive weed.
1802 D. Collins Acct. Eng. Colony New S. Wales II. ix. 88 A similar timber was called the Black Wattle.
1863 Technologist 3 5 The gum of the black wattle (Acacia mollissima, Willd.)..is very inferior to it [sc. that of the silver wattle].
1955 P. White Tree of Man 206 Sometimes in stormy weather gulls came..and glided and dipped above the black wattles.
2006 S. Unwin S. Afr. Wildlife (rev. ed.) 26 Another significant threat comes from the steady advance of invasive alien plants, such as the Australian black wattle (Acacia mearnsii).
black willow n. any of various willows with dark-coloured bark, esp. Salix nigra, found on riverbanks and swampy ground in eastern North America.
[1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xvi. xxxvii. 485 In Asia, they make account of three sorts of Willows: the blacke, which they employ to wind and bind withall, so tough and pliant it is: the white..: as for the third, it is the shortest of all other, and they call it Helix, or Helice.]
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) xx. 90 The black Willow is Planted of stakes of three years growth.
1794 J. Hodskinson Farmer's Guide 29 In gaps and decayed places [in hedges],..where there is not a sufficency of live stuff for stakes and plashers, make use of black willow or sallow stakes.
1841 W. A. Leighton Flora of Shropshire 485 Salix Pentandra, Linn. Sweet Bay-leaved Willow... Much sought after by the Irish harvestmen, who call it ‘the black willow’, and cut it for their shillelahs.
1980 Jrnl. Manx Museum No. 89. 23/1 For basket-weaving the ‘black-willow’ was preferred.
2002 C. Fergus Trees of Pennsylvania 59 Ragged, rugged black willow (Salix nigra) slouches on the banks of streams in farming country.
black Worcester n. (in full black Worcester pear) = black pear n.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (Monthly Kal., July), Fruits in prime and yet lasting... Pears... Black Worcester (baking).
1859 New Eng. Farmer 419 The most common and hardy old pear trees we see around us, are the old ‘Iron’, or ‘Black Worcester’ variety.
1908 Gardeners Chron. 21 Nov. 361 The Black Worcester Pear is one of the best that can be planted for forming a standard tree.
2008 Daily Tel. 12 Sept. 12/7 Rare fruit varieties under threat include: the Arlingham Schoolboy apple, the black Worcester pear..and the Denbigh plum.
blackwort n. comfrey, Symphytum officinale, which has a black root used (esp. formerly) as a herbal remedy.
1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 661 It is called..in English Comfrey..of some Knit backe, and Blackwoort.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Asne, Oreille d'asne, th' hearbe Comfrey, knit-backe, knit-wort, blacke-wort.
a1760 C. Alston Lect. Materia Medica (1770) I. xlv. 526 Comfrey.., Bone-set, Blackwort.—This has a larger branched and wrinkled root, of a black colour on the outside, white within.
1837 B. H. Barton & T. Castle Brit. Flora Medica I. 212 In rural dialects it has also the names of Consound, Knit-back, Bone-set, and Black-wort.
2006 S. Foster & R. Johnson Nature's Med. (2008) 115/1 Comfrey roots have a black exterior and fleshy whitish interior that exudes a slimy, mucilaginous juice (hence the common names ‘blackwort’ and ‘slippery root’).
Compounds C1. Instrumental (esp. in sense B. 2).Some of the following could be construed as parasynthetic compounds of the adjective: compare Special uses 1.
a.
1458 Will in Ipswich Probate Registry Bk. ii. f. 5, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Blak, My Black lynnyd gownd.
1784 London Mag. July 41/2 He was buried in the Isle of Enlli..where there was a college of Black Cowled Monks.
1846 J. H. Ingraham Spectre Steamer & Other Tales 17 The engine was set in motion—our black cloaked passenger took the wheel, which at his touch, became a wheel of fire.
1977 ‘J. le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy iii. xvi. 362 Jerry was admitted to the presence of a tiny, very senior black-suited Cambodian sent by Phnom Penh to handle noisome correspondents.
2004 A. Greig In Another Light (2005) 122 Hoodie craws sat on fenceposts by the sea like black-cloaked sinister ministers.
b.
black-bordered adj.
1774 Descr. Cathedral Church Salisbury 111 On a white marble, black bordered, is this inscription.
1839 Dickens Nicholas Nickleby i. 2 A black-bordered letter to inform him how his uncle..was dead.
1998 R. Stone Damascus Gate i. 5 Black-bordered photographs of young martyrs, slain far away in the Azerbaijani war.
black-clad adj.
1596 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) x. lvi. 250 The black-clad Scaffold.
a1672 A. Bradstreet Wks. (1867) 223, I heard the merry grashopper then sing, The black clad Cricket, bear a second part.
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise I. i. 375 Her friends black-clad and moving mournfully.
1942 L. Brackett Sorcerer of Rhiannon in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 46/2 He had a needle gun in his hand, and six or seven black-clad policemen just behind him.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 16 Mar. 141/1 Those black-clad misfits in '80s teen movies.
black-clothed adj.
1800 J. Rennell Geogr. Syst. Herodotus v. 87 Tamerlane found in the mountains of Kawuck..a tribe who are named by his historian Sherefeddin, Sia-poshians, or black clothed.
1873 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 322 Our parson bends his black-clothed back in the sun.
1998 G. Lynds Mosaic (1999) iii. 33 The black-clothed thief expertly swiveled and fired into the forehead of the driver.
black-draped adj.
1845 A. Marsh-Caldwell Love & Duty 19/1 The teams of black-draped horses, tossing their plumes, with necks gravely arched, as if aware of the solemn part they had to play.
1898 Westm. Gaz. 28 May 10/1 The bowed, black-draped figure passing sadly from the shadows in the Abbey.
1904 Daily Chron. 8 Dec. 3/2 The black-draped scaffold at Whitehall.
2002 S. Mackey Reckoning x. 349 Black-draped women begging for water in southern Iraq raised little sympathy in the United States.
black-edged adj.
1706 J. Petiver Classical Catal. 85 Yellow black edged Luzon Butterfly.
1865 C. M. Yonge Clever Woman I. i. 5 Hurry to the drawing-room, and tear open the black-edged letter.
2002 J. Maxwell Point Fury i. v. 37 Chris..looked up to discover an ominous sky through the big windows, with black-edged clouds rolling in off the ocean.
black-margined adj.
1808 Lit. Panorama Oct. 57 Alas! we have received no black-margined summons to attend his funeral.
2006 Oregonian (Nexis) 6 Apr. 22 She touches a tapestry of plants on the shelves—some with furrowed and ridged leaves, shiny, smooth, olive or blue-green,..curled, black-margined, velvety.
black-robed adj.
1673 W. Penn Wisdom Justified vii. 109 For this blessed Testimony we must be thus abused, defamed, and set at nought by the Black-robed-Rabbies of this World.
1786 H. Lee Errors of Innocence I. lxii. 212 How the black robed gentry of Doctors Commons rave at the precedent.
1863 M. L. Whately Ragged Life Egypt iv. 23 Her black-robed female relatives support her on each side.
1997 W. Dalrymple From Holy Mountain (1998) v. 318 A hover of black-robed archbishops and metropolitans conducted me into a tall, vaulted reception room.
black-rimmed adj.
1704 Nat. Hist. in L. Wafer New Voy. & Descr. Isthmus Amer. (ed. 2) vi. 216 The Black-rimm'd Butterfly.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. vii. [Aeolus] 125 Staring through his blackrimmed spectacles.
2003 Daily Tel. 1 Sept. 5/5 He wears black-rimmed metal glasses and has a Manchester accent.
black-stained adj.
1773 J. Robertson Poems 8 Oh, what a black-stain'd marble heart.
1888 R. Kipling From Sea to Sea (1899) II. iii. 99 The black-stained staircase that leads to an upper chamber.
1939 C. W. Towne Her Majesty Montana 114 Butte prospectors had located quartz on a black-stained reef.
2001 Art Room Catal. Spring Preview 2/2 Decoration comes in the form of ‘waisted’ front legs and black-stained architectural uprights set in threes into the back.
c. In sense B. 9, as black-led, black-owned, black-run, etc.
1959 N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Aug. 4/6 The UANM head explained his group's ‘Buy Black’ policy,..which entails buying first from black owned business.
1965 Ebony July 152/2 A large number of Negro staff members..say the organization must be ‘black-led, black-controlled, and black-dominated’.
1977 Third Way 3 Nov. 11/2 Black-led churches are the only institutions offering unrestricted leadership possibilities to black people.
1986 P. Benson Black Orpheus, Transition, & Mod. Cultural Awakening in Afr. Pref. p. xi, South Africa's first black-written, black-edited, black-run literary and artistic review, The Classic.
1994 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 6 Oct. a22/1 Compton long has boasted of being the largest black-run city west of the Mississippi.
2000 Business Day (S. Afr.) 28 Jan. 1/2 The Competition Tribunal has approved the purchase of 100% of black-owned oil company Zenex's shares by SA oil company Engen.
C2. Objective in sense B. 1.
black-maker n.
?1881 Census Eng. & Wales: Instr. Clerks classifying Occupations & Ages (?1885) 58 Dye, Paint manufacture... Black Maker.
1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §158 Black maker, a colour mixer..preparing black pigments or paints from charcoal, graphite, calcined ivory or horn, carbon black, drop black, etc.
1995 Rubber & Plastics (Nexis) 16 Jan. 13 Black makers were plagued by growing raw material prices and a tight supply in 1994.
C3.
black–white adj. of, relating to, or designating interactions or relationships between black people and white people.
1895 Princeton Contrib. Psychol. 1 166 Is it not just the social repugnance to black-white marriages?
1935 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 4 309 Many are the non-scientific solutions for the problem of black–white race relations.
1969 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 34 891/2 The problematic power disparities which are general concomitants of such black-white interaction.
2001 H. Gilbert Postcolonial Plays 14/1 Such a romanticised vision is seen to simplify post-contact history into a reductive black-white dichotomy, an inadequate formulation for understanding the complexities of contemporary South Africa.
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