"blackamoor" meaning in English

See blackamoor in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈblæk.əˌmɔː(ɹ)/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈblæk.əˌmʊə(ɹ)/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈblæk.əˌmɔɹ/ [General-American], /ˈblæk.əˌmʊɹ/ [General-American] Forms: blackamoors [plural]
Etymology: From earlier blackmoor + -a-. By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor. Etymology templates: {{infix|en|blackmoor|a}} blackmoor + -a-, {{surf|en|black|-a-|Moor}} By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor Head templates: {{en-noun}} blackamoor (plural blackamoors)
  1. (archaic, heraldry, now offensive) A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa. Tags: archaic, offensive Categories (topical): Heraldry Translations (person with dark skin): негър (negǎr) [masculine] (Bulgarian), mouřenín [masculine] (Czech), Moor [masculine] (Dutch), moriaan [masculine] (Dutch), murjaani (Finnish), Mohr [masculine] (German)
    Sense id: en-blackamoor-en-noun-PsYi~hH0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms infixed with -a-, English terms interfixed with -a-, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Czech translations, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 88 12 Disambiguation of English terms infixed with -a-: 82 18 Disambiguation of English terms interfixed with -a-: 82 18 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 85 15 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 89 11 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Czech translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 81 19 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 83 17 Topics: government, heraldry, hobbies, lifestyle, monarchy, nobility, politics Disambiguation of 'person with dark skin': 88 12
  2. (now offensive) A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child. Tags: offensive
    Sense id: en-blackamoor-en-noun-swGk1IjR
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: black, Negro, blackamore, blackemore, blackemoor, blackymore [Scotland], blackmoor [obsolete] Derived forms: wash a blackamoor white

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "wash a blackamoor white"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "blackmoor",
        "3": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "blackmoor + -a-",
      "name": "infix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "black",
        "3": "-a-",
        "4": "Moor"
      },
      "expansion": "By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor",
      "name": "surf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier blackmoor + -a-. By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blackamoors",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "blackamoor (plural blackamoors)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Heraldry",
          "orig": "en:Heraldry",
          "parents": [
            "History",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "88 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms infixed with -a-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms interfixed with -a-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "85 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Czech translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "81 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "83 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Argent, three blackamoors’ heads couped sable, capped or, fretty gules.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:",
          "text": "`Well, Job,' I said, `perhaps it would be as well. There are lots of blankets there, only be careful to keep out of the moon, or it may turn your head or blind you.' `Lord, sir! I don't think it would much matter if it did; it is that turned already with the sight of these blackamoors and their filthy, thieving ways.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:",
          "text": "Go venture shipwreck on the sullen coasts\nWhere blackamoors make captive Christian men ...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn, Beethoven: Revealing His True Identity:",
          "text": "\"What!\" exclaimed the Prince, \"the music is by the blackamoor (a black Moor). Well, my fine blackamoor, henceforth thou art in my service.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Barbara Hewson, An English Bar Disciplinary Tribunal went over the top when dealing with a racial harassment case.:",
          "text": "What had Pringle done to merit such a severe penalty? He had said to Adusei during a criminal trial, \"How's the blackamoor?\". The Tribunal found that this was offensive, which clearly it was, and constituted an act of racial discrimination.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, Maurice W. Connell, The Prophet Said Silk (http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/SILK02.html), citing Thomas Gage's Travels in the New World, J. Eric S. Thompson (editor), page 73",
          "text": "Gage noted the clothing of the slaves of the Spanish nobles, and silk was common to them. \"The gentlemen have their train of blackamoor slaves, some a dozen, some half a dozen, waiting on them, in brave and gallant liveries, heavy with gold and silver lace, with silk stockings on their black legs, and roses on their feet, and swords by their sides.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa."
      ],
      "id": "en-blackamoor-en-noun-PsYi~hH0",
      "links": [
        [
          "heraldry",
          "heraldry"
        ],
        [
          "black",
          "black"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic, heraldry, now offensive) A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "offensive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "heraldry",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "monarchy",
        "nobility",
        "politics"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "negǎr",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "негър"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "mouřenín"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Moor"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "moriaan"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "word": "murjaani"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "person with dark skin",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Mohr"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1893, Annotation to The Diary of Samuel Pepys by \"Mary\", http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/08/10/index.php citing Restoration London, Liza Picard, pages 178-179.\nIn 1596 Elizabeth I had already decreed that all \"blackamoors\" should be sent back to Spain or Portugal as they were disturbing local labour markets. It became very fashionable for the wealthy to have \"blackamoor\" page boys and personal servants, as their complexions set off the pale-skinned beauty of the women of the family."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Doug Davis, Lost Girl, archived from the original on 2005-02-04:",
          "text": "She seems to have been a serious girl, but she remembered her father's characterization of her as his \"Little blackamoor.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child."
      ],
      "id": "en-blackamoor-en-noun-swGk1IjR",
      "links": [
        [
          "slave",
          "slave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "offensive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmɔː(ɹ)/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmʊə(ɹ)/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmɔɹ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmʊɹ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "black"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Negro"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "blackamore"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "blackemore"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "blackemoor"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ],
      "word": "blackymore"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "blackmoor"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blackamoor"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjective-noun compound nouns",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms infixed with -a-",
    "English terms interfixed with -a-",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
    "Terms with Czech translations",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "wash a blackamoor white"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "blackmoor",
        "3": "a"
      },
      "expansion": "blackmoor + -a-",
      "name": "infix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "black",
        "3": "-a-",
        "4": "Moor"
      },
      "expansion": "By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor",
      "name": "surf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier blackmoor + -a-. By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blackamoors",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "blackamoor (plural blackamoors)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Heraldry"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Argent, three blackamoors’ heads couped sable, capped or, fretty gules.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:",
          "text": "`Well, Job,' I said, `perhaps it would be as well. There are lots of blankets there, only be careful to keep out of the moon, or it may turn your head or blind you.' `Lord, sir! I don't think it would much matter if it did; it is that turned already with the sight of these blackamoors and their filthy, thieving ways.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:",
          "text": "Go venture shipwreck on the sullen coasts\nWhere blackamoors make captive Christian men ...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn, Beethoven: Revealing His True Identity:",
          "text": "\"What!\" exclaimed the Prince, \"the music is by the blackamoor (a black Moor). Well, my fine blackamoor, henceforth thou art in my service.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Barbara Hewson, An English Bar Disciplinary Tribunal went over the top when dealing with a racial harassment case.:",
          "text": "What had Pringle done to merit such a severe penalty? He had said to Adusei during a criminal trial, \"How's the blackamoor?\". The Tribunal found that this was offensive, which clearly it was, and constituted an act of racial discrimination.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1958, Maurice W. Connell, The Prophet Said Silk (http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/SILK02.html), citing Thomas Gage's Travels in the New World, J. Eric S. Thompson (editor), page 73",
          "text": "Gage noted the clothing of the slaves of the Spanish nobles, and silk was common to them. \"The gentlemen have their train of blackamoor slaves, some a dozen, some half a dozen, waiting on them, in brave and gallant liveries, heavy with gold and silver lace, with silk stockings on their black legs, and roses on their feet, and swords by their sides.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "heraldry",
          "heraldry"
        ],
        [
          "black",
          "black"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic, heraldry, now offensive) A person with dark black skin, especially one from north Africa."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic",
        "offensive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "heraldry",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "monarchy",
        "nobility",
        "politics"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English offensive terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1893, Annotation to The Diary of Samuel Pepys by \"Mary\", http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/08/10/index.php citing Restoration London, Liza Picard, pages 178-179.\nIn 1596 Elizabeth I had already decreed that all \"blackamoors\" should be sent back to Spain or Portugal as they were disturbing local labour markets. It became very fashionable for the wealthy to have \"blackamoor\" page boys and personal servants, as their complexions set off the pale-skinned beauty of the women of the family."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Doug Davis, Lost Girl, archived from the original on 2005-02-04:",
          "text": "She seems to have been a serious girl, but she remembered her father's characterization of her as his \"Little blackamoor.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "slave",
          "slave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now offensive) A black slave or servant, and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "offensive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmɔː(ɹ)/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmʊə(ɹ)/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmɔɹ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈblæk.əˌmʊɹ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "black"
    },
    {
      "word": "Negro"
    },
    {
      "word": "blackamore"
    },
    {
      "word": "blackemore"
    },
    {
      "word": "blackemoor"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ],
      "word": "blackymore"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "blackmoor"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "negǎr",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "негър"
    },
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "mouřenín"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Moor"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "moriaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "word": "murjaani"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "person with dark skin",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Mohr"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blackamoor"
}

Download raw JSONL data for blackamoor meaning in English (6.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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