Blackamoor
(ˈblækəmʊə(r), -mɔə(r))
Forms: 6 blake More, Blacke Moryn, black a Moore, 6–7 blacke Moore, blackmoor(e, 7 Black-Moor(e, -More, -moor, black Moor, Blackmore, -moore, Blackemore, Black-a-Moore, Black-amoore, blackeamoore, 7–8 Blackamore, Blackamoor(e, 7– blackamoor.
[= Black Moor, a form actually used down to middle of 18th c. Blackamoor is found 1581: of the connecting a no satisfactory explanation has been offered. The suggestion that it was a retention of the final -e of ME. black-e (obs. in prose before 1400) is, in the present state of the evidence, at variance with the phonetic history of the language, and the analogy of other black- compounds. Cf. black-a-vised.]
1. A black-skinned African, an Ethiopian, a Negro; any very dark-skinned person. (Formerly without depreciatory force; now a nickname.)
| 1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. 212, I am a blake More borne in Barbary. 1548 Thomas Ital. Gram., Ethiopo, a blacke More, or a man of Ethiope. 1552 Huloet, Blacke Moryns or Mores. 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 184 Like one that washeth a black a Moore white. 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 239 Shee is painted like a blackmoore. 1604 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 98 This is the Blackamore that by washing was turned white. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. i. 80, I care not and she were a Black-a-Moore. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. 95 The Negro's, which we call the Blacke-Mores. 1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 308 The Blackmoore may sooner change his skin, the Leopard his spots. 1666 Pepys Diary (1879) VI. 46 For a cook maid we have used a blackmoore. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. iii. (1852) 576 The instruction of the poor blackamores. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. Lett. Ap. 26 The first day we came to Bath, he..beat two black-a-moors. 1856 R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 271 As far below the reality as a blackamoor is unlike the sun. |
b. attrib.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia 36 A Coach drawne with foure milke white horses..with a black-a-Moore boy vpon euery horse. 1676 Hobbes Iliad i. 403 To Blackmoor-land the Gods went yesterday. 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4238/8 A Blackamore Man called Cæsar. 1716 Ibid. No. 5434/3 Run away..a Black Moore Boy. |
† c. blackamoor's teeth: cowry shells. Obs.
| 1700 W. King Transactioneer 36 He has Shells called Blackmoors Teeth, I suppose..from their Whiteness. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 334 Known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of Blackamore's Teeth among other Persons. |
2. fig. A devil.
| 1663 Cowley Cut. Coleman St. iv. vi, He's dead long since, and gone to the Blackamores below. |
3. attrib. Black-skinned, quite black.
| 1813 J. Forbes Orient. Mem. I. 325 The first blackamoor pullen I ever saw was here: the outward skin of the fowl was a perfect negro. 1856 E. Capern Poems (ed. 2) 90 Some blackamoor rook. |