darky, darkey
(ˈdɑːkɪ)
[f. dark a. + -y, dim. and appellative: cf. blacky.]
1. The night. slang.
| 1789 G. Parker Life's Painter 124 (Farmer) Bless your eyes and limbs..I don't come here every darkey. 1836 R. Burrowes Death of Socrates in Rel. Father Prout (1860) 269 Then at darkey we waked him in clover. |
2. A dark-lantern. slang.
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Darky, a dark lanthorn. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxii, ‘Crape, keys, centre-bits, darkies—nothing forgotten?’ inquired Toby. |
3. Also darkie. A Black, esp. a Southern U.S. Black (usu. considered patronizing or mildly offensive). Also attrib. colloq.
| 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxxiii. 129 The darkey tried to butt him. 1883 Century Mag. XXVII. 132 The manners of a corn-field darky. 1884 19th Cent. Feb. 246 A coffin of curious darkey workmanship. 1848 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 1st Ser. 24 I'd an idee that they were built arter the darkie fashion all. a 1860 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3) 114, I wish de legislatur would set dis darkie free, Oh! what a happy place den de darkie land would be. 1936 Discovery Oct. 308/2 The simple words of the darkie mother. 1941 W. A. Percy Lanterns on Levee i. 10 They held Sunday school for their own and the darkies' children. 1957 [see boot n.3 1 e]. 1971 G. Lamming in J. Figueroa Caribbean Voices I. 20 Often in our green folly We mocked the celluloid display, How darkies south of civilization Clowned their ways to fame. 1983 ‘J. le Carré’ Little Drummer Girl i. iv. 81 Was it something about not taking on the darkies as conductors? |
4. A blind man. dial.
| 1807 J. Stagg Poems 144 A darky glaum'd her by the hip. |