Etymology is the study of the history of words. Find out how 'black' entered the English language, from what source, and how its form and meaning have changed over time
‘Black’ can be traced back to its proto Indo-European origins through ‘bhleg’ which means ‘to burn with black smoke’ or ‘to burn black with smoke’. ‘Bhleg’ was incorporated into Old High German as ‘blah’ (black), Low Franconian as ‘black’ (ink) and Old Norse as ‘blakkr’ (dark, dusky).
Black in Old and Middle English
The Old English ‘blæc’ was relative to its ‘blegh’ origin as it was predominantly used as an adjective to describe ‘colour pertaining to matter that was colourless from the absence or complete absorption of light’. This adjective can be seen in Old English literature such as K. Ælfred’s ‘Bæda’ from c890, ‘hæfde blæc feax’ (have black hair). By Middle English it was common to use black as an adjective, ‘My mistress eyes are raven black ’(1600), as a verb, ‘The paper will be blacked by the smoke’ (1532), and as a noun, ‘stand before me like my Blacks’ (1619) (hired mourners in funerals).
Black's Semantic Shifts
It was not till the sixteenth century that the semantic broadening of black occured- both figurative connotations as well as literal. From ‘blacken’ and its literal meaning ‘to stain black’ came the figurative meaning ‘to stain someones reputation, or defame’. This additional meaning however was purely negative and as its influence broadened, the semantic shift of black began to mean having malignant or deadly purposes and even pertaining to or involving death- ‘black curse’(1583), ‘the Queen's black enemy’(1758), and from previous centuries ‘The Black Death’.
King's Semantic Interference: 'Black is Beautiful'
Black began to be used to intensify all kinds of adjectives with adverse significance: black babbling (malicious gossiping, slanderous- 1624) and black boding (ill omen, inauspicious-1742) for example. The incorporation of black as a negative intensifier resulted in phrases such as ‘black-looking man’ which referred not to the physical description of the man, but the subjective belief that he looked evil or malignant. This however severely clashed with one of the earliest uses of black’s literal meaning- to describe a person with dark skin, ‘Blac as a bloamon’ (1255), and ‘The mouth of the Riuer [Gambra], where dwell the Blackes’ (1625).
Parasynethic combinations using black resulted in ‘blackboy’ to refer to boy servants, and ‘blackfellows’ to refer to Asutralian Aborigines- terms which are highly offensive in modern English. By the mid-twentieth century, Doctor Martin Luther King’s slogan ‘Black is beautiful’ caused significant semantic interference to black’s pejorative meaning. King’s slogan asserted pride in ‘Blackness’ and Black self-awareness and turned Black (with a capitalized 'B') into the preferred appellation for most African-Americans.
Black in Modern English
The twentieth century marked the most rapid semantic broadening of the word black; it was used to describe a serious mistake or blunder, ‘Far from committing the black they expected, she showed great heroism’(1943) and even describe the presentation of tragedy or bitter reality in comic terms, ‘I prefer my black comedy a little blacker’ (1963).
The only literal meanings that are still in use for black are now greatly exceeded by its figurative counterparts- however one can still refer to the suit of spades or clubs as black (from late seventeenth century), coffee served without milk or cream as black (from late eighteenth century) and also to refer to economic profit by being ‘in the black’ which inevitably came from the book-keeping practice of writing in black ink on the credit side of a ledger.
Dictionaries used for this article:
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, editor-in-chief Mairi Robinson and senior editor George Davidson, Edinburgh: Chambers, 1999.
Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition), edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
