blacklist

Etymology

It is a compound from English black (“disgraceful, censured”) + list (“a list”),^[2][3][4][5] with black in its sense of disgrace or punishment, which Etymonline records from the 1590s in black book.^[3] The verb is formed from the noun by conversion.^[2] Dictionary.com compares whitelist.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A list of people who have incurred suspicion or displeasure and are to be punished or shunned: 1624, in Bishop J. Hall's The True Peace-maker.^[2][4] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the word to the 1610s.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

From the general list of the suspect and the disgraced, the word was applied in the 19th century to particular lists.^[2] In the navy a blacklist was a list of offenders given extra duty as punishment (1825).^[2] Employers' lists of workers not to be hired, usually for union activity, are recorded by the OED from 1847,^[2] and by Etymonline from 1884;^[3] trade unions kept lists of employers to boycott,^[2][4] and lists of convicted drunkards are recorded from 1875.^[2] In wartime a blacklist was a list of firms with which a country's nationals might not trade.^[4] Cassell's notes that in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s the blacklist kept suspected Communist sympathizers out of work.^[6] The word was also used of undesirable things from 1768.^[2] The OED records the verb from 1837, after the earlier nouns blacklisted and blacklisting;^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1702 and Etymonline to 1718.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1624 – a list of people under suspicion or censure.^[2][4]
• 1768 – a list of undesirable things.^[2]
• 1825 – in the navy, a list of offenders given extra duty.^[2]
• 1837 – verb, to put on a blacklist.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1702.^[4]
• 1847 – an employers' list of workers not to be hired.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1884.^[3]
• 1875 – a list of convicted drunkards.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A list of people or organizations regarded as untrustworthy or disloyal, who are to be punished, boycotted or kept out: After the scandal his name was on every studio's blacklist.^[7][4][2]
2. A list kept by employers of workers who are not to be hired, or by a trade union of employers to be boycotted.^[4][2]
3. A list of things to be avoided or banned.^[2]

Verb

1. To put a person or organization on a blacklist: The guild blacklisted three writers.^[7][4][2]

Word family

• blacklister

Related words

• black book
• whitelist
• blackball

Usage notes

Cassell's says the practice goes back to the black books in which British universities listed misbehaving students in the Middle Ages,^[6] and Hendrickson traces the blacklist to Charles II's list of the judges who had condemned his father;^[8] both are popular accounts, and the OED records the word from 1624.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Cassell's Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, London: Cassell
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File