Etymologically
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black

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /blæk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blak, inherited from Old English blæc,[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burned”),[2] the source of Old Saxon blac (“ink”), Old High German blah (“black”), Old Norse blakkr (“dark, dun”), Swedish bläck (“ink”) and Dutch blaken (“to burn”).[2][5][6] Etymonline, Klein and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- (“to burn, gleam, shine”), also the source of Ancient Greek φλέγειν (phlégein, “to burn”) and Latin flagrāre (“to blaze, burn”),[2][5][4] but Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call its ultimate origin unknown.[7][6] In Middle English it was confused with blake (“pale”), from Old English blāc (“shining, pale”).[2][4][7] It replaced Old English sweart (swart) as the ordinary colour word.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the colour of soot or coal, absorbing all light: Old English blæc, recorded about 700.[4][2] The noun blæc also meant “ink”.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Because of the confusion with blake “pale”, a Middle English blak can mean either “dark” or “pale, wan”, and the surname Blake either.[2] The sense “fierce, terrible, wicked” is from the late 14th century,[2] and the word has carried gloom since the Middle Ages and wickedness since Shakespeare's time.[9] It was used of dark-skinned people already in Old English;[2] the noun “a black person” is from the 1620s, perhaps after Spanish negro.[2][4] Black clothes worn in mourning are black from about 1400,[2] coffee without milk from 1796,[2] and in the black “in credit” (1922) comes from bookkeepers' black ink.[2][6] The verb meant “to become black” about 1200 and “to make black” in the early 14th century;[2] “to polish boots” is from the 1550s,[2] and “to boycott in an industrial dispute” from the mid-20th century.[6] Blackmail (1552) was first the tribute paid to freebooters for protection,[4][7] and a blackguard (1535) was a kitchen menial before he was a scoundrel (1736).[4][9]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English blæc.[4]
  • c. 1200 – verb, to become black.[2]
  • early 14th century – verb, to make black.[2]
  • late 14th century – wicked, terrible.[2]
  • c. 1400 – mourning clothes.[2]
  • 1535 – blackguard, kitchen help.[4]
  • 1550s – verb, to polish boots.[2]
  • 1552 – blackmail, protection tribute.[4]
  • 1620s – noun, a black person.[2]
  • 1796 – of coffee.[2]
  • 1922 – in the black.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of the darkest colour, like soot or coal, reflecting almost no light.
  2. Having little or no light; dark.
  3. Belonging to a group of people with dark skin, especially of African descent.
  4. Gloomy or sinister; wicked.
  5. Of coffee, without milk or cream.

Noun

  1. The colour black; black paint, dye or pigment.
  2. Black clothes, especially worn in mourning.
  3. A black person.
  4. (in the black) The state of being in credit.

Verb

  1. To make black; to polish with blacking.
  2. (British) To boycott as part of a labour dispute.

Word family

  • blackish
  • blackly
  • blackness
  • blackishly
  • blackishness
  • blue-black
  • boneblack
  • jet-black

Usage notes

RHWU notes that black began to replace Negro in the late 1950s and is now the most widely used term, and that colored is often offensive.[10] The AHD notes that Black is often capitalized when used of people, which parallels names of other ethnic groups, though the lowercase form is still widely used.[11]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin