black man
1. A man having a black or very dark skin. (Cf. quot. 1815 for black a. 3 a.)
| 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. ii. 12 Blacke men are Pearles, in beauteous Ladies eyes. 1738 F. Moore Trav. Africa 102 After which came on Shore the Captain, four Writers, one Apprentice,..and one Black Man. 1820 Hist. N. Amer. II. 10 Two slaves, the one a black man, a native of the place. 1894 F. A. Steel Potter's Thumb iv, He wondered..what certain politicians at home would say to this candid distrust of the black man. |
2. An evil spirit; also, the evil one, the devil; also, a spirit or bogey invoked in order to terrify children. colloq. or dial.
| [1591 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials Scotl. (1833) I. 246 Þe Dewill start vp in þe pulpett, lyke ane mekill blak man, with ane blak baird stikand out lyke ane gettis baird.] 1658 tr. Bergerac's Satyr. Char. xii. 48, I send the Goblins..the nightbats,..the black men. 1851 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 240/2 ‘The foreigner’, who is to the farmers what the black man and the sweep of nurse-maids are to children. 1861 G. Meredith Evan Harrington iii, Rich as Crœsus, and as wicked as the black man below! 1873 J. Ogg Willie Waly 123 Nor will the black man get ye. 1878 Folk-lore Rec. I. 19 What nights of misery does that name, the black man, bring back to my memory! 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Black-man, a terrible object; a bogy; a nursery terror. (Very com.) Now you be good chillern, else the black-man 'll come down the chimley arter ee. 1969 J. C. Faris in Halpert & Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 138 One would seldom, even in jest, call someone a Devil{ddd}circumlocutions are used, such as ‘Black Man’, [etc.]. |
3. A local equivalent of blackmaster.
| 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §925 Undertaker; blackman (Lancashire). |