Black

This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co., shows the transformation from white to "black".

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A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and colourless.
without light.
Relating to persons of African descent or (especially in the US) their culture.
Bad; evil.
- 1655, Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168.
  ...what a black day would that be, when the Ordinances of Jesus Christ should as it were be excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ.
Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
- 1866, The Contemporary Review, London: A. Strahan, page 338.
  Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.

See also