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Black

Definition: Black

Black

Adjective

1. Being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light; "black leather jackets"; "as black as coal"; "rich black soil".

2. Of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin especially of sub-Saharan African origin; "a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"- Martin Luther King Jr.

3. Marked by anger or resentment or hostility; "black looks"; "black words".

4. Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable; "black deeds"; "a black lie"; "his black heart has concocted yet another black deed"; "Darth Vader of the dark side"; "a dark purpose"; "dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility"; "the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy.

5. Offering little or no hope; "the future looked black"; "prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a dim view of things".

6. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin; "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error".

7. (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood; "a face black with fury".

8. Extremely dark; "a black moonless night"; "through the pitch-black woods"; "it was pitch-dark in the celler".

9. Harshly ironic or sinister; "black humor"; "a grim joke"; "grim laughter"; "fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit".

10. : (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading; "black propaganda".

11. : distributed or sold illicitly; "the black economy pays no taxes.

12. : (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame; "Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands"- Rachel Carson; "an ignominious retreat"; "inglorious defeat"; "an opprobrious monument to human greed"; "a shameful display of cowardice".

13. : (of coffee) without cream or sugar.

14. : dressed in black; "a black knight"; "black friars".

15. : soiled with dirt or soot; "with feet black from playing outdoors"; "his shirt was black within an hour".

Noun

1. The quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white).

2. Total absence of light; "they fumbled around in total darkness"; "in the black of night".

3. British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799).

4. Popular child actress of the 1930's (born 1927).

5. A person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa).

6. (chess or checkers) the darker pieces.

7. Black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning); "the widow wore black".

Verb

1. Make or become black; "The smoke blackened the ceiling"; "The ceiling blackened".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "black" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Black

DomainDefinition

Bible

Black properly the absence of all colour. In Prov. 7:9 the Hebrew word means, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "the pupil of the eye." It is translated "apple" of the eye in Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2. It is a different word which is rendered "black" in Lev. 13:31,37; Cant. 1:5; 5:11; and Zech. 6:2, 6. It is uncertain what the "black marble" of Esther 1:6 was which formed a part of the mosaic pavement. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Literature

Black for mourning was a Roman custom (Juvenal, x. 245) borrowed from the Egyptians.
Black, in blazonry, means constancy, wisdom, and prudence.
Black, in several of the Oriental nations, is a badge of servitude, slavery, and low birth. Our word blackguard seems to point to this meaning. The Latin niger meant bad, unpropitious. (See Blackguard.)
Black (See under Colours for its symbolisms, etc.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Physics

Of a body or medium, effectively absorbing all of the radiation of some specified energy or range of energies incident on it. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: African American

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An African American is an American of predominantly, or at least partial, African descent, or rather a black American (see also below).

Most African Americans are descendants of persons brought to the Americas as slaves between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. (Those whose ancestors were brought as slaves to the Caribbean, or to Latin America, but who have come to the United States as free people, are sometimes classified as African-American, but are sometimes classified as Latin-American or Caribbean-American instead. Those who have come from Africa in the 20th or 21st centuries are often identified by their country of origin—for example, Nigerian-American.)

While the term had been used in print in some circles at least since the 1920s (and often shortened to Afro-American, the name of a famous Baltimore newspaper founded in 1892) it came to much wider use in the United States since the 1970s as the preferred term, as requested by some black Americans themselves. As of 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau identifies 12.9% of the US population as Black or African-American.

To be considered Black in the United States of America not even half of one's ancestry must be African Black. But will one fourth do, or one-eight, or less? The nation's answer to the question "Who is Black?" has long been that a Black is any person with any known African black ancestry. This definition reflects the long experience with slavery and later with Jim Crow laws. In the south of the country it became known as the one-drop rule, meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person black. Some courts have called it the "traceable amount rule", and anthropologists call it the "hypo-descent rule", meaning that racially mixed persons are assigned the status of the subordinate group. This definition emerged from the American South to become the American's definition, generally accepted by whites and blacks. Since the end of legal sanctions on African Americans, some have chosen to identify themselves as "mixed" instead of African American. Additionally throughout US history, very pale persons sometimes chose to pass as white and joined the white community, oftentimes completely separating themselves from contact with darker members of their family. This at some times and places was a dangerous action, in light of anti-miscegenation laws and lynch mobs.

The term's use has sometimes been criticized as political correctness, while those who prefer the term say it is a matter of respect and politeness. However, using the word black is accepted by most, while some object to African American because it incorrectly implies that all Africans are black. In addition, even if some of one's remote ancestors descend from Africa, a dark-skinned immigrant from, for example Haiti or Cuba (or even an European nation) might prefer not to be identified as African. However, the term Negro, which was widely used until the 1960s, is today generally considered inappropriate and derogatory by many, largely because of its close association with the term nigger.

Another term to define African-American is "mulatto" and colored. The term "mulatto" was originally used to mean the offspring of a "pure African black" and a "pure European white". Although the root meaning of mulatto, in spanish or portuguese is hybrid, mulatto came to include the children of unions between whites and so called "mixed Blacks". For example, in the early twentieth century African-American activists such as Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass, who had slaves as mothers and white fathers, were referred to as mulattoes. To whatever extent their mothers were part white, these men were more than half white.

The term "quadroon" refers to a person who is one-fourth African in descent, perhaps someone born to a Caucasian mother and a mulatto father. Someone of one-eighth African descent is an "octoroon", although the term has been used loosely to refer to anyone with a small-but-present amount of Black blood. The word "méamelouc" became the standard label for someone whose ancestry was one-sixteenth sub-Saharan African, while a one-thirty-second mix was a "demi-méamelouc". The word "sang-melé" covered someone who had at least one known ancestor from Africa, but was less than one-thirty-second Black. Someone who has three-fourths Black (the progeny of a mulatto and a pure African, ideally) was traditionally called a "griffe".

The term "colored" seemed for a time to refer only to mulattoes, especially lighter ones, but later it became an euphemism for darker Blacks, even including unmixed Blacks. With widespread racial mixture, "Black" or "Negro" came to mean any slave or descendant of a slave, no matter how much mixed. Eventually in the U.S, the terms mulatto, colored, Negro, black, African-American all came to mean, people with any known black African ancestry. Mulattoes are racially mixed, to whatever degree, while the terms black, Negro, African-American and coloured include both mulattoes and unmixed blacks.

A discussion of this subject can be found in the journal article "The Politicization of Changing Terms of Self Reference Among American Slave Descendants" in American Speech v 66 is 2 Summer 1991 p. 133-46.

Slavery and oppression

People of Sub-saharan Africa, often kidnapped and sold into slavery by Arabs and other black Africans (sometimes as a result of inter-tribal warfare), were brought to the United States involuntarily by slave traders from many European nations as well as the United States from 1619 through 1806, when the trade was declared illegal. After the abolition of slavery at the end of the Civil War, African Americans continued to be denied fully equal civil rights in many jurisdictions. This happened both legally and through extra-legal cultural practices, including in the most extreme form lynchings and terrorism by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Legal barriers to equality were removed as a result of the work of the civil rights movement during the years between the end of World War II and the end of the 1960s (see Lyndon Johnson).

African Americans are seen as the most oppressed and disadvantaged racial group in North America, along with Native Americans. African-American males are more likely to be imprisoned than any other demographic group, especially between the ages of 20 and 39. Africam-American public school students are most likely to be assigned to special-education classes.

See also

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American Black Bear

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

American Black Bear
larger image
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Family:Ursidae
Genus:Ursus
Species:americanus
Binomial name
Ursus americanus
Ursus americanus is the scientific name of the American Black Bear (also known as simply the black bear or cinnamon bear). It is the most common bear in North America

The black bear occurs throughout much of North America from northern Canada and Alaska south into Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This includes 39 of the 50 U.S. states and all Canadian provinces. Populations in east-central and the southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and preserves. While there were probably once as many as two million black bears in North America, recent estimates put their numbers at less than 200,000.

Appearance

The black bear is approximately 5 feet (1.5 metres) long. Females typically weight about 90 pounds (40 kg), while males weigh about 290 pounds (130 kg). However, some can weigh up to 700 pounds (318 kg). Cubs usually weigh about 1 pound at birth. It has small eyes, rounded ears, a long snout, a large body, and a short tail. The shaggy hair varies in color from white through chocolate brown, cinnamon brown, and blonde to black, but most black bears are indeed black or a darker shade of brown.

While black bears are capable of standing and walking on their hind legs, the usual posture is on all fours. The black bear's characteristic shuffle results from walking flat-footed, with the hind legs slightly longer than the front legs. Each paw has five strong, non-retractable claws used for tearing, digging, and climbing. One blow from a powerful front paw is enough to kill an adult deer. But in spite of their size and strength, black bears are surprisingly agile and careful in their movements.

Habitat and Behavior

Black Bears prefer forested and shrubby areas but use wet meadows, high tidelands, ridgetops, burned areas, riparian areas, and avalanche chutes. They also frequent swampy hardwood and conifer forests. After emerging from their winter dens in spring, they seek southerly slopes at lower elevations for forage and move to northerly and easterly slopes at higher elevations as summer progresses. Black Bears use dense cover for hiding and thermal protection, as well as for bedding. They climb trees to escape danger and use forested areas as travel corriders. Black bears hibernate during winter and may build dens in tree cavities, under logs, rocks, in banks, caves, or culverts, and in shallow depressions.

Black bears reach breeding maturity at about 4 or 5 years of age, and breed every 2 to 3 years. Black bears breed in the spring, usually in May and June, but the embryos do not begin to develop until the mother dens in the fall to hibernate through the winter months. However, if food was scarce and the mother has not gained enough fat to sustain herself during hibernation as well as produce cubs, the embryos do not implant (develop).

Black bear cubs are generally born in January or February. The blind cubs weigh about « to 3/4 of a pound at birth, and twins are most common. By spring thaw, when the bears start leaving their dens, the cubs are fur-balls of energy, inquisitive and playful. They are weaned between July and September of their first year, and stay with the mother through the first full winter. They are usually independent by the second winter.

Cub survival is totally dependent on the skill of the mother in teaching her cubs what to eat, where and how to forage (find food), where to den, and when and where to seek shelter from heat or danger.

Black bears eat a wide variey of foods, relying most heavily on grasses, herbs, fruits, and mast. They also feed on carrion and insects such as carpenter ants (Campanotus spp.), yellow jackets (Vespula spp.), bees (Apidae), and termites (Isoptera). Black bears sometimes kill and eat small rodents and ungulate fawns. Some common plant foods are listed below: oak (Quercus spp.) and hazel (Corylus spp.) mast, mountain ash (Sorbus spp.), tree cambium, dogwood (Cornus spp.), manzanita and kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos spp.), cranberry (Vibernum spp.), blueberry and huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.), raspberry and blackberry (Rubus spp.), rose hips (Rosa spp.), gooseberry (Ribes spp.), sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), rhubarb (Polygonum alaskanum), lupine (Lupinus spp.), northern bedstraw (Galium boreale), lousewort (Pedicularis spp.), Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicus), California coffeeberry (Rhamnus californicus), squawroot (Conopholis americana), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), clover (Trifolium spp.), thistle (Cirsium spp.), buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), lomatium (Lomatium spp.), cowparsnip (Heracleum lanatum), and pine nuts . Black bears also eat salmon (Oncorynchus spp.) and raid orchards, beehives, and crop fields. They pick from garbage dumps and trash bins of private homes. Black bears may occasionally prey on domestic sheep and pigs when their natural foods are scarce.

Black bear predators include man, the brown bear (Ursus arctos), and other Black Bears. Coyotes (Canis latrans) may prey on cubs.

Black bears are as much an important game species as they are the center of controversy across the continent. Because their behavior has been little understood, Black bears have been feared and hated. They have also been portrayed as harmless play toys by film and television. Their low reproductive rate and late sexual maturation make them vulnerable to overharvest. Their active foraging habits and habitat encroachment by man have created man-bear conflicts

Taxonomy and Subspecies Ranges

The American Black Bear is classified as being in the class Mammalia, order Carnivora and family Ursidae.

Currently accepted subspecies (with their respective ranges) include:

Ursus americanus altifrontalisthe Pacific Northwest coast from central British Columbia through northern California and inland to the tip of northern Idaho and British Columbia
Ursus americanus amblycepsColorado, New Mexico, west Texas and the eastern half of Arizona into northern Mexico; southeastern Utah
Ursus americanus americanus from eastern Montana to the Atlantic; from Alaska south and east through Canada to the Atlantic and south to Texas
Ursus americanus californiensisthe Central Valley of California, north through southern Oregon
Ursus americanus carlottaeQueen Charlotte Islands, Alaska
Ursus americanus cinnamomumIdaho, western Montana, and Wyoming, eastern Washington and Oregon, northeastern Utah
Ursus americanus emmonsiisoutheastern Alaska
Ursus americanus eremicusnortheastern Mexico
Ursus americanus floridanus (Florida black bear)Florida, southern Georgia and Alabama
Ursus americanus hamiltonithe island of Newfoundland
Ursus americanus kermodeithe central coast of British Columbia
Ursus americanus luteolus (Louisiana black bear)eastern Texas, Louisiana, southern Mississippi
Ursus americanus machetesnorth-central Mexico
Ursus americanus pernigerKenai Peninsula, Alaska
Ursus americanus pugnaxAlexander Archipelago, Alaska
Ursus americanus vancouveriVancouver Island, British Columbia

Current Legal Protections

Today, a major threat to the American black bear is widespread poaching, or illegal killing, to supply Asian markets with bear gall bladders and paws, considered to have medicinal value in China, Japan, and Korea. The demand for these parts also affects grizzly and polar bears. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (also known as CITES), a treaty among more than 120 nations, provides measures to curb illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products across international boundaries, helping to protect the black bear from poaching.

While black bears are abundant in most parts of the West, some Eastern populations are at critically low levels. Two subspecies found in the southeastern U.S., the Louisiana black bear and the Florida black bear, still face decline mainly due to habitat loss and degradation.

In 1992, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Louisiana black bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it could become in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range in the foreseeable future. The American black bear also is protected by the Act in the affected states (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) due to its close resemblance to this subspecies. The Florida black bear is a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Miscellaneous

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Black

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Black can mean several things:

Color or light

Black can be defined as the absence of visible light. For example collapsed stars, which due to their intense gravity can neither reflect nor emit light, are called "black holes". Pigments that absorb light rather than reflect it back to your eye "look black." Conversely, the combination of all colors of light is called white.

In terms of pigment, however, black is the combination of all (pigment) colors. If equal proportions of primary pigments are mixed, the result reflects little light and so is "black."

This creates two opposite yet complementary definitions of black. Black is the lack of all colors of light, or the combination of all colors of pigment. See also Primary colors and Primary pigments.

This can be explained as follows: the red pigment, for example, absorbs all light except red light; red light is reflected, and thus our eye sees the pigmented object as red. When many pigments are combined, whatever would have been reflected by one of the pigments is absorbed by the others. Thus no light escapes. (no visible light, that is; ultraviolet, for example, might still be reflected, unless some kind of "ultraviolet pigment" were added.)

Race

The term black is also used for people with dark skin color, usually of sub-Saharan African origin (in fact the color of the skin is not black, but any of a variety of shades of brown).

In the USA, African Americans are commonly called, and call themselves, "black." However, some have argued that due to the growing scientific consensus against race as a biological category, that "blackness" is merely a social construct. After all, many African-Americans who call themselves "black" are also of European, Native American and/or Asian descent. In addition, many so-called "white" Americans are of African descent, due to the practice known as "passing", whereby some African-Americans who were also of European ancestry, and who possessed extremely light complexions and features, were able to hide their African heritage from public (and sometimes, private) knowledge.

But, especially in the United States, there is still a strong (though weakening) social stigma against those persons identifying themselves as part of more than one perceived racial category. Hence, it may be truer to say that people who perceive themselves or are perceived by others as African-American are often called "black."

The term "negro" was widely used to describe these people until the 1960s, and remains a constituent part of the names of several African-American-led organizations, but is today generally considered inappropriate and derogatory by many, and the term "nigger", once used widely to refer to people of African descent, is usually considered extremely offensive. However, some African-Americans have sought to reclaim the term from its racist history by transmuting it to the variant "nigga", used between some African-Americans as a term of endearment. It is important to note, though, that although "nigga" may be used endearingly between African-Americans, it is still generally considered offensive when uttered by someone who is perceived as not being of African ancestry.

In the United Kingdom, the term usually refers to Afro-Caribbean people. It is sometimes used to refer to all non-white people, especially in a political context. This has also been the case in South Africa.

Australian Aborigines are also commonly called black.

Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

In Western societies black is most often used with a negative connotation, with a few notable exceptions. For instance, a "black day" would be used in these cultures to refer to a sad or tragic day. However, to say one's accounts are "in the black" is used to mean that one is free of debt (a very positive thing in a capitalist society).

In arguments things can be black or white, or shades of gray, the intensity used as an analogue for things such as truthfulness or right and wrong. (Note that when referring to the intensity of pigment or light, black is always the complete lack of intensity.)

In Western cultures and their colonial offshoots, the color black is often used in painting, film, and literature to evoke a sense of the unknown or of death. In these cultures, the color black is often seen as the color of mourning, though this convention is less strict than in earlier times, when widows and widowers were expected to wear black for a year after the death of their spouses.

However, in other cultures, such as the Maasai tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, the color black is associated with rain clouds and is thus a symbol of life and prosperity.

People whose surname is or was Black include

Black Army: a supporter club for AIK, Stockholm, Sweden. The athletic teams which represent the country of New Zealand often have the word "black" in their names. For example, the All Blacks are the country's national rugby union team; less well-known, the Tall Blacks represent New Zealand in basketball.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Black."

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Black metal music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal rock music. Black metal generally consists of heavily distorted, extremely fast guitar playing, screamed vocals, and fast drumming. The genre makes extensive use of repetition, with some songs being quite simple musically. An abraded, very low-fidelity recording style is common to the early albums associated with the genre. Also common are overtly Satanic lyrics which blaspheme against Christianity, as well as other occult themes. A distinct feature of the early bands' image was the use of corpse paint, a special kind of black and white make-up which emphasized their demonic appearance. There has been some concordance in recent years between the black metal sub culture and right-wing nationalist movements in some countries.

The progenitors of modern black metal are bands like Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Venom and Slayer. The movement can be seen in its mature form with the recordings of Bathory in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Black metal congealed in its current form through the influence of Norwegian bands such as Darkthrone, Carpathian Forest, Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal and Emperor, who began with the earlier style and introduced elements from mainstream heavy metal, classical music and hardcore punk and popularized the style to a growing underground audience. Their influence is most apparent in the satanic imagery, blasphemous lyrics and occult themes.

History

The most prominent figure of the original Norwegian scene was Øystein Aarseth, (Euronymous), the guitarist in the band Mayhem. In many ways, he was the godfather of the Norwegian black metal scene, being its most vocal proponent and visible figure. The scene was deeply anti-Christian, and had a stated goal of removing the influence of Christianity and other non-Scandinavian religions from Norwegian culture and to effect a return to the nation's Norse roots. The movement was largely directed by an 'Inner Circle', made up of Aarseth and a few close friends, from the basement of Aarseth's record store, Helvete (Hell). That location also housed a recording studio, where records were made by Mayhem and a number of other bands that were signed to Aarseth's independent label, Deathlike Silence. Deathlike Silence's stated goal was to release records by bands "that incarnated evil in it's (sic) most pure state."

Also around this time there was a rash of church burnings in Norway that Aarseth's circle claimed responsibility for inspiring, if not necessarily perpetrating. The most notable church was Norway's Fantoft Church, which was burned by a member of Euronymous's inner circle, and the man behind the one-man band Burzum, Kristian "Varg" Vikernes, aka "Count Grishnakh". Black metal enthusiasts also started to terrorize other notable "death metal" bands that were touring their country or in neighboring countries, on the basis of their lack of apparent "evilness".

The Black Metal scene gained some unasked-for mass media attention in 1990 when Mayhem's frontman Dead committed suicide by a shotgun blast to his head. His note simply read "Please Excuse the mess". His body was discovered by Aarseth who, instead of calling the police, ran to a nearby convenience store and bought a disposable camera which he used to photograph the corpse for a future Mayhem album cover. Apocryphal reports also claim that he then took some pieces of Dead's splattered brains and made a stew out of them and/or members of the band took bone fragments from their friend's skull and made necklaces out of them.

The 'Inner Circle' got even more exposure in 1993, when Vikernes murdered Aarseth in his home over some sort of interpersonal feud, stabbing him 23 times in the head and back. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison and has since distanced himself from the black metal movement, becoming involved in the Neo-Nazi movement and writing extensively on the subject.

By the last few years of the 1990s, the black metal scene had lost much of its appeal to the underground, when recordings from commercially oriented bands such as Dimmu Borgir, using classical-sounding arrangements and prominent keyboards, began to get regular play on European airwaves. Far from the rough, DIY sounds of the early Norwegian bands, this latest wave employed polished sounds more accessible to a mass audience.

However, since the mid-90s, an Eastern European black metal scene has been developing. Bands from these former Iron Curtain lands are recording albums more in keeping with the primitive nature of the early Norwegian artists. Many of these bands' lyrics glorify the pagan roots of their home countries, occasionally injecting elements of indigenous folk music into their arrangements. The Latvian band Skyforger is a prime example of this new aesthetic. The black metal scene in Russia and Ukraine has produced many bands more in keeping with the carefully arranged sounds coming from Scandinavia, but with more appreciation for the low fidelity aesthetic of early black metal. The Ukrainian band Nokturnal Mortum has achieved some recognition in the west; their earlier albums relied heavily on synthesizers, but their current work has a grimmer, more abrasive feel flavored with Slavic folk instruments. Poland's neo-nazi band Graveland has, in recent albums, strived for a 'medieval' feel, much like a much more developed version of later 'viking' Bathory albums, but in the past made much rawer music which still held a certain intangible folk flavor.

There are a relatively small number of American bands playing black metal (sometimes called USBM bands). This movement has not taken a particularly clear form, but better-known groups are Judas Iscariot and the death metal-influenced Averse Sefira.

Sub-genres

There are many smaller genres related to, or sub-genres of Black Metal. The main ones are listed below:

Although those above are real sub-genres, with a number of bands in each, there are an extremely large amount of "sub-subgenres" like "forest metal," "mass murder metal," "dragon metal" and others distinct to very small regions or specific bands.

See also: Black metal fashion.

Literature

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Black Sea

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Black Sea (also known as the Euxine Sea) is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, and to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch. There is a net inflow of seawater through the Bosporus, 200 km3 per year. There is an inflow of freshwater from the surrounding areas, especially central and middle-eastern Europe, totalling 320 km3 per year. The most important river entering the Black Sea is the Danube.

Countries bordering on the Black Sea are Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia. The Crimea is an Autonomous Republic of Ukraine.

Important cities along the coast include: Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and Byzantium), Burgas, Varna, Constanţa, Tulcea, Odessa, Sevastopol, Batumi

Geology

The Black Sea is the largest anoxic, or oxygen-free, marine system. This is a result of the great depth of the sea and the relatively low salinity (and therefore density) of the water flowing into it from rivers and the Mediterranean; freshwater and seawater mixing is limited to the uppermost 100-150m, with the water below this interface (called the pycnocline) being exchanged only once every thousand years. There is therefore no significant gas exchange with the surface, and as a result decaying organic matter in the sediment consumes any available oxygen. In these anoxic conditions some extremophile microorganisms are able to use sulfate (SO42-) for oxidation of organic material, producing hydrogen sulfide (HS) and carbon dioxide. This mix is extremely toxic (a lungful would be fatal to a human), resulting in a sea that has almost all of its ecology living in that top layer down to a depth of approximately 500 feet -- for the rest of the over 7000 feet of depth, there is basically no life at all.

Large amounts of organic material reach the bottom of the sea and accumulate in the sediments in concentrations of up to 20%. These kinds of sediments are called sapropel.

History

The Black Sea region is thought to have been the original homeland of "Proto-Indo-European", the progenitor of the Indo-European language family, by some scholars. Others move the heartland further east towards the Caspian Sea.

In 1997, William Ryan and Water Pitman from Columbia University published evidence that a massive flood through the Bosporus occurred about 5600 BC. Glacial meltwater had turned the Black and Caspian Seas into vast freshwater lakes, while sea levels remained lower. As the glaciers retreated, rivers emptying into the Black Sea reduced their volume and the water levels lowered. Then, about 5600 BC, as sea levels rose, the Mediterranean spilled over a rocky sill at the Bosphorus. Ryan and Pitman wrote: "Ten cubic miles of water poured through each day, two hundred times what flows over Niagara Falls. ... The Bosporus flume roared and surged at full spate for at least three hundred days." The event flooded 60,000 square miles of land, and significantly expanded the Black Sea shoreline to the north and east. The Black Sea's water level raised many hundreds of feet, and it was transformed from a fresh-water landlocked lake into a salt water sea connected to the ocean. The displacement of early agricultural peoples has been linked with the rapid spread of agriculture north and west into Europe. It has been popularly suggested that the survivors' memory of this event was the source of the legend for Noah's Flood. Initial resistance came from those who looked for more detailed correlation with the Book of Genesis (see Noah's Ark and Mount Ararat) or preferred as prototype the similar marine ingression that formed the Persian Gulf in the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley. Subsequent work by marine archeologist Robert Ballard has identified ancient shorelines, freshwater snail shells, drowned river valleys and tool-worked timbers in 300 feet of water off the coast of modern Turkey.

The name (initially Pontus Euxinus) was coined by the Ancient Greek navigators, because of the unusual dark colour, compared with the Mediterranean Sea. Visibility in the Black Sea is on average approximately 15 feet (as compared to up to 100 feet in the Mediterranean). The land at the eastern end of the Black Sea, Colchis (now Georgia) marked for the Greeks an edge of the known world.

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Black suit

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In contract bridge the black suits are spades and clubs, because most Anglo-American playing cards print these suit symbols in black. There is nothing special about these two suits as a combination in bridge, but it is often convenient to be able to talk about suit combinations in this way. Other games such as Canasta may give special functions to black cards or red cards.

See: two suiters.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Black suit."

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Black triangle

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An inverted black triangle has two unrelated meanings:

Public Health

In the UK, the inverted black triangle is used to indicate a medicine under intense scrutiny.

External links

Gender and Sexuality

An inverted black triangle is a lesbian or feminist symbol of pride and solidarity. It originates from Nazi Germany, where it was used in concentration camps to designate women considered 'anti-social' (i.e., a threat to Nazi family values) such as lesbians and prostitutes. As a symbol of lesbian pride it is considered the female counterpart to the pink triangle, which was a symbol for gay men.

See also homosexuals in Nazi Germany, rainbow flag.

External links

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Black, Alabama

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Black is a town located in Geneva County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the town is 202.

Geography


Black is located at 31°0'40" North, 85°44'40" West (31.011112, -85.744365)1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²). 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.

Demographics


As of the census2 of 2000, there are 202 people, 85 households, and 57 families residing in the town. The population density is 25.3/km² (65.6/mi²). There are 102 housing units at an average density of 12.8/km² (33.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 94.06% White, 5.45% Black or African American, 0.50% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.00% from two or more races. 0.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 85 households out of which 29.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% are married couples living together, 9.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 31.8% are non-families. 28.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.38 and the average family size is 2.93. In the town the population is spread out with 23.8% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there are 72.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 79.1 males. The median income for a household in the town is $31,250, and the median income for a family is $36,250. Males have a median income of $27,857 versus $15,924 for females. The per capita income for the town is $12,628. 19.2% of the population and 13.2% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 32.4% are under the age of 18 and 8.0% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Black, Alabama."

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Mediterranean Sea

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea between Europe, Africa and Asia covering an approximate area of 2.5 million km².

The sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar on the west and to the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and the Bosporus on the east. The Sea of Marmara is often considered a part of the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the Black Sea is not. The Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.

Tides are very limited because of the narrow connection with the ocean.

Its major islands are:

Countries bordering the sea are: The climate is generally one of wet winters and hot, dry summers. Special crops of the region are olives, grapes, orangess, tangerines, and cork. The region has a long history of civilization.

Parts of the Mediterranean are given their own names.

The commonly named seas are (from west to east): the Ligurian Sea north of Corsica, the Tyrrhenian Sea enclosed by Sardinia, Italy and Sicily, the Adriatic Sea between Italy and the Dalmatian coast, the Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece, the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, with the Thracian Sea in its north, the Mirtoon Sea between the Cyclades and the Peleponnesus, and the Sea of Crete north of Crete, and the Sea of Marmara between the Aegean and Black Seas.

There are a larger number of gulfs and straits as well.

External Links

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Race (US Census)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The United States Census Bureau uses the federal government's definitions of race when performing a census. These definitions have and may change between each census. For the 2000 census the census bureau considers race to be separate from Hispanic origin.

Because of changes to definitions the census bureau warns the following:

The question on race for Census 2000 was different from the one for the 1990 census in several ways. Most significantly, respondents were given the option of selecting one or more race categories to indicate their racial identities. Because of these changes, the Census 2000 data on race are not directly comparable with data from the 1990 census or earlier censuses. Caution must be used when interpreting changes in the racial composition of the U.S. population over time.

Definitions

The following definitions apply to the 2000 census only.

Reference

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Sirius Black

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Sirius Black is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of novels.

Warning: Spoilers follow

Sirius Black is said to have been one of the last members born to the House of Black, a prominent family of evil sorcerers. Known members of the family include Narcissa Black, who is married to Lucius Malfoy as Narcissa Malfoy, Andromidia Black, who married Ted Tonks and had Nymphadora Tonks, Bellatrix Black, who married Rudolphus Lestrange and Regulus Black, who was killed on Voldemort's orders.

Sirius Black was best friends with James Potter, Harry Potter's father. Indeed, James and Lily Potter made Sirius Harry's godfather. Sirius is an Animagus, and went by the nickname "Padfoot" because of his form, that of a dog. When Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger communicated with him throughout Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (when he is in hiding), they call him "Snuffles" and pretend that he is a friendly stray dog.

Sirius' family sympathized with Lord Voldemort's desires to cleanse the wizarding world of non-purebloods, and this may have led to Sirius' incarceration at Azkaban due to accusations of murdering eleven people. (Note that Rowling has not explained why Veritaserum is not used in trials such as these; perhaps powerful witches and wizards can fool even that potion.)

During the course of events described in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Sirius escapes. After a good deal of confusion, Harry comes to realise that Sirius is definitely on the side of good; however, being on the run, Sirius can communicate with Harry only sporadically.

During the events described in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius donates his family home for use as the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. He is effectively trapped there due to the manhunt for him, even though the Auror assigned to his case is also a member of the Order. When he leaves for a short time to see Harry to the train station on his journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he is recognised.

Despite this, Sirius makes a number of attempts at contacting Harry through the Floo system, which is eventually monitored by the Ministry of Magic and Dolores Umbridge. Lord Voldemort uses his growing power to influence Harry's mind, making him believe that Sirius is being held captive in the Department of Mysteries. In the ensuing battle, Sirius actually disappears; he falls through an arch and does not reappear, presumably dead. He was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, his own cousin.

References

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Black

The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted.
EntrySourceExpressionField
bl.EnglishBlackPhysics

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Synonyms: Black

Synonyms: achromatic (adj), blackened (adj), black-market (adj), bleak (adj), bootleg (adj), calamitous (adj), contraband (adj), dark (adj), dim (adj), disastrous (adj), disgraceful (adj), fatal (adj), fateful (adj), grim (adj), ignominious (adj), inglorious (adj), mordant (adj), opprobrious (adj), pitch-black (adj), pitch-dark (adj), shameful (adj), sinister (adj), smuggled (adj), black person (n), blackamoor (n), blackness (n), lightlessness (n), pitch blackness (n), total darkness (n), blacken (v), melanise (v), melanize (v), nigrify (v). (additional references)
Antonyms: white (n), whiten (v). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Black

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Vice

Base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous; flagrant, flagitious; atrocious, incarnate, accursed.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Black

English words defined with "black": American black bear, Asiatic black bearBerlin black, Black act, Black African, black alkali, black and blue, Black and white, Black angel, black Angus, Black antimony, black bamboo, black bead, black bear, black bearberry, black belt, black body, Black bryony, black carpet beetle, black cherry, black cherry tree, black cock, black comedy, black crappie, black currant, Black death, Black draught, black duck, Black English, Black English Vernacular, black flag, Black fly, black fox, Black Friar, Black frost, Black Hills, black huckleberry, black knot, Black man, Black manganese, black mangrove, black marketeer, black medick, black morel, Black Muslim, black nightshade, Black Panther, Black Panthers, black pea, black pudding, black raspberry, black rat snake, black rockweed, Black Rod, black root rot fungus, Black rust, black sheep, black spot, black squirrel, black stork, black swan, black tie, Black tin, Black turnstone, black widow, Black wolf, Black woman, Blue black, Bone black, Brunswick blackcarbon black, coal blackEuropean black currant, European black grouseFrankfort blackivory blackJapan black, jet blackKentucky black basslargemouth black bass, largemouthed black bass, little black antMagnase black, Mexican black cherrypitch black, Platinum blacksmallmouth black bass, smallmouthed black bass, soot black, Spanish black, spotted black bassTo have the black ox tread on one's foot, To look black. (references)
Specialty definitions using "black": aniline blackBLACK ART, Black as a Newgate Knocker, BLACK A-SE, Black Assize, black balled, black body, blackbody, BLACK BOOK, Black Books, BLACK BOX, Black Brunswickers, black burst field, Black Cap, black coral, Black Data Processing Associates, Black Dog, Black Doll, Black Douglas, black fen, Black Flags, BLACK FLY, Black Friars, Black Friday, Black Genevan, black gold, Black Hole of Calcutta, Black Horse, Black in the Face, BLACK INDIES, Black is White, Black Jack, Black Joke, black line, black liquor recovery furnaces, Black Lists, Black Looks, black metal, BLACK MONDAY, Black Money, black mud, black ore, Black Ox, BLACK OXIDE COATING EQUIPMENT TENDER, black oxide operator, black paper, Black Parliament, black peat, black photo paper, Black Republicans, Black Rood of Scotland, black rouge, Black Russia, Black Screen of Death, Black Sea Economic Cooperation, BLACK SPICE RACKET, BLACK SPY, Black Standard, Black Strap, Black Thursday, Black Watch, black zone, Black...White, BODY OF DIVINITY BOUND IN BLACK CALFcharcoal blackFuchs black spotJudge's Black CapLook BlackMan in BlackProcession of the Black BreechesREVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERSsemi-thickened black liquor, summer black oil, Swear Black is White. (references)
Etymologies containing "black": Xanthomelanous. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Black" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

Swedish (cream-colored horse, cream-coloured horse, faded, fetter, Gray, iron, towny).

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Modern Usage: Black

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Look at that--red, green, black! It's like having four pens in one (I.Q.; writing credit: Andy Breckman and Michael Leeson.)

I was raised a white child in a poor black family (The Jerk; writing credit: Carl Reiner, written by Steve Martin and Carl Gottlieb.)

I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls (Rebecca; writing credit: Daphne Du Maurier; Philip MacDonald)

I'm sorry I had to fight in the middle of your Black Panther party (Forrest Gump; writing credit: Eric Roth)

Darkness warshed over the Dude - darker'n a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night (The Big Lebowski; writing credit: Ethan Coen; Joel Coen)

Lyrics

Black water keeps rollin' on past just the same (Black Water; performing artist: Doobie Brothers)

Baby's black balloon makes her fly (Black Balloon; performing artist: Goo Goo Dolls)

She was a long cool woman in a black dress (Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress); performing artist: Hollies)

Black cat nine lives short days long nights (Black Cat; performing artist: Janet Jackson)

That old black magic has me in its spell ("That Old Black Magic"; performing artist: Louis Prima & Keely Smith)

Tongue Twisters

A big black bug bit a big black bear. Where's the big black bear the big black bug bit? (references; author: unknown)

Bad black bran bread. (references; author: unknown)

Black bug's blood. (references; author: unknown)

Brad's big black bath brush broke. (references; author: unknown)

The boot black bought the black boot back. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Black (2003)

Shoot It Blue Shoot It Black (1974)

Nights in Black Leather (1974)

The Black Windmill (1974)

Black Starlet (1974)

Song Titles

Black Strap Molassas (performing artist: Jimmy Durante)

Black Bonnet Girls (performing artist: The Electric Amish)

Black (performing artist: The Foremen)

Black Balloon (performing artist: Goo Goo Dolls)

Black Jack Davy (performing artist: The Incredible String Band)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Black

DomainTitle

References

  • A & C Black Plc.: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Black & Decker Corporation (The): International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Black Arrow Group Plc: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Black Box Corporation: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  • Black Hills Corporation: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

    (more reference examples)

  

Books

  • Black and Blue: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) (reference)

  • Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (reference)

  • The Harry Bosch Novels: The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde (reference)

  • Three Black Skirts : All You Need To Survive (reference)

  • Without Blemish; To-Day's Problem: To-Day's Problem (The Black Heritage Library Collection) (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Periodicals

  

Theater & Movies

  • Universal's Classic Monster Collection (Dracula/Frankenstein/The Mummy/The Invisible Man/The Bride of Frankenstein/The Wolf Man/The Phantom of the Opera/The Creature from the Black Lagoon) (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

Music

  

High Tech

  

Consumer Goods

  • Eddie Bauer Overnight Large Diaper Bag - Black (reference)

  • Seatsaver Car Seat Mat - Black (reference)

  • Panasonic DuraMax EB-TX220 Phone, Black (AT&T) (reference)

  • Black & Decker V7210 7.2-Volt Double Action DustBuster Cordless Vac (reference)

  • Factory-Reconditioned Black & Decker HT500R 22" Hedge Trimmer (reference)

    (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Black

Photos:
Black

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Black

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Black

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Black

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

A technique called in situ hybridization shows whether a gene is actively expressed in cells, and also provides clues to the gene's function. This technique has helped identify activated oncogenes in cancer cells, and their normal counterparts in normal cells, in many different species. In this photograph, a labeled DNA segment (a known oncogene) has been put into a mouse oocyte, a cell that develops into a mature egg cell. The labeled DNA has paired with (or hybridized to) multiple copies of RNA in the mouse oocyte. The presence of this RNA (shown here as black dots inside the nucleus of the immature cell) shows that the normal cellular counterpart of the oncogene is active, suggesting that it is critical for normal germ cell development. Expression of genes is manifested by the production of RNA transcripts within cells. Hybridization histochemistry (in situ hybridization) permits localization of these transcripts with cellular or greater resolution. Furthermore, the relative amounts of transcripts detected within different tissues or the same tissues under different states (e.g., physiological or developmental) may be quantified. See artwork: GA-17. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist.

This is a histological slide stained with H&E of a human herpesvirus (HHV-6), a type of human herpes virus. In this photomicrograph of infected cells, the black specks indicate the location of a radioactive isotope that has been attached to the viral RNA. In this case, a large number of black specks indicate that this lymphocyte has been infected. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist.

Closeup of fixed, cut surface shoes multiple cavities lined by heavy black carbon deposits. Credit: CDC.

Iodamoeba bütschlii cyst. Chlorazol black stain. Protozoon, ameba, parasite. Credit: CDC.

Black Brant XII Launch. Credit: NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope's ongoing black hole hunt has bagged yet another supermassive black ... Credit: NASA.

Medium-size black holes actually do exist, according to the latest findings from NASA's Hubble ... Credit: NASA.

Black hole at the center of a galaxy. (NGC 4438). Credit: NASA.

Black and white images of five smaller satellites of Saturn. Credit: NASA.

Deploying Fluxgate magnetometer on EXPLORER Harris B. Stewart in black shirt. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Black
 

"Black cat in tree" by Kristof Van Cauwenberg
Commentary: "Black cat in tree."
"Black guitar 1" by Matt Wheeler
Commentary: "My black washburn acoustic guitar against a white wall."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Sounds Captioned with "Black".

PlayCaption
Black leopard growling and hissing.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Black

AuthorQuotation

Charles Caleb Colton

Time; that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities.

Decimus Junius Juvenal

A rare bird on earth, comparable to a black swan.

Doris Christensen

Night coming in like a black, silk cloud, silently folding itself around us.

Karl Marx

Labor in a white skin cannot be free as long as labor in a black skin is branded.

Miguel de Cervantes

Are we to mark this day with a white or a black stone?

Pierre Auguste Renoir

I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.

Thomas Hood

But who would rush at a benighted man, and give him two black eyes for being blind?

William Blake

Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.

William Congreve

Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Black

AuthorDateQuotation

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1963

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1905)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Black

TitleAuthorQuote

Emma

Austen, Jane

They arrived, the carriage turned, the step was let down, and Mr. Elton, spruce, black, and smiling, was with them instantly

A Christmas Carol

Dickens, Charles

It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe

Douglas Adams

exclaimed both of Zaphod's heads in chorus. "So safe that you have to build a zarking fortress ship to take the by-products to the nearest black hole and tip them in

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

He wore a blouse, and under it an old black coat

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce, James

Was it true about the black dog that walked there at night with eyes as big as carriagelamps

King Richard III

Shakespeare, William

A black day will it be to somebody

Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck, John

And he left his black hat there, broken and dirty

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

The hair of both sexes was of several colors, brown, red, black, and yellow

Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his senses still

Sonnets

William Shakespeare

I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Black

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

Black tarry stools or blood in vomit. (references)

Blue and black denote inactive areas. (references)

You see blood in your stool or have black, tarry stools. (references)

Business

Black & Decker and Bosch are the principal players. (references)

Secondly, a foreign firm MUST have a local black partner. (references)

Peter Black Healthcare accounts for 4 percent of the U.K. market. (references)

Children

South Africa

The enrollment of black students had risen to 41 percent in 1999 at the nation's top five universities. (references)

Moldova

One orphanage director lost his job for selling the food earmarked for the children on the black market. (references)

South Africa

The law provides greater educational opportunities for disadvantaged children--traditionally black children--through a uniform system for the organization, governance, and funding of schools. (references)

Civil Liberties

Afghanistan

Students from grades one to six reportedly were required to wear black turbans and students in higher grades to wear white turbans. (references)

Chile

Her once-banned book, "The Black Book of Chilean Justice," was allowed to circulate freely and confiscated copies were returned to the publisher and bookstores. (references)

Guatemala

Protests against increases to the value-added tax began in June with Friday evening rallies in the capital by primarily upper-middle class protesters wearing black. (references)

Discrimination

Cuba

The country is a multiracial society with a black and mixed-race majority. (references)

Economic History

Dominica

The power of the Black population progressively eroded. (references)

Moldova

Terrain: Rolling steppe, gradual slope south to Black Sea. (references)

Human Rights

Uzbekistan

Relatives of soldiers killed in the insurgency insulted her and smeared her face with black paint. (references)

South Africa

In May a black teenager was beaten to death near the northern town of Pietersburg in an attack that appeared to be racially motivated. (references)

Equatorial Guinea

For example, in August 2000, after Sa Oyana's escape from Black Beach Prison, his cousin Jesus Miguel Ondo Miyone, also a citizen of Spain, was arrested and detained. (references)

Indigenous People

Ecuador

The three main indigenous groups--CONAIE, the Federation of Indigenous and Black Peasants of Ecuador (FENOCIN), and the Federation of Evangelical Indigenous of Ecuador (FEINE)--tabled 23 topics for discussion, including the claims by indigenous groups for indemnities over lives lost during the protests. (references)

Minorities

Mozambique

The black and South Asian Islamic communities tend to remain separate; however, there were no reports of conflict. (references)

Mauritania

The majority of those known as Black Moors are Haratine, literally meaning "one who has been freed," although some Black Moor families never were enslaved. (references)

Political Economy

BAHRAIN

Bahrain has no black market or parallel exchange rate. (references)

Namibia

Unemployment was nearly 40 percent and affected primarily the black majority. (references)

Uruguay

Violence against women and societal discrimination against women and the black minority are problems. (references)

Trade

Ukraine

NRG and Black & Veatch conducted the study. (references)

Georgia

The EBRD also owns a 20 percent equity stake in the International Black Sea Commercial Bank. (references)

Slovak Rep

Non-automatic import licenses are required for water, black coal, brown coal, crude oil and natural gas as well as beer. (references)

Travel

Venezuela

The airport taxi line uses black Ford Explorers only. (references)

Ghana

They range from the simple black and white, standard 2" x 3.5" cards, to colorful, oversized, multi-colored cards with fancy logos. (references)

Georgia

Presently, about 90 present of freight traffic is concentrated on the main Trans-Caucasus route between the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi through Tbilisi to Yerevan (Armenia) and Baku (Azerbaijan). (references)

Women

South Africa

Women, especially black women, typically have lower incomes and less job security than men. (references)

Nigeria

Confined widows are under restrictions for as long as 1 year and usually are required to shave their heads and dress in black. (references)

Saudi Arabia

In public a woman is expected to wear an abaya (a black garment that covers the entire body) and also to cover her head and hair. (references)

Worker Rights

Cuba

Corruption and black market activities were pervasive. (references)

Mauritania

However, widespread slavery also was traditional among ethnic groups of the largely nonpastoralist south, where it had no racial origins or overtones; masters and slaves both were black. (references)

Mauritania

In 2000 the land of several Black Moor families, some of whom were former slaves, in the Dar El Barka and Boghe communes was confiscated by the Wali (Governor) for redistribution to his relatives and supporters. (references)

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

TREE, n. A tall vegetable intended by nature to serve as a penal apparatus, though through a miscarriage of justice most trees bear only a negligible fruit, or none at all. When naturally fruited, the tree is a beneficient agency of civilization and an important factor in public morals. In the stern West and the sensitive South its fruit (white and black respectively) though not eaten, is agreeable to the public taste and, though not exported, profitable to the general welfare. That the legitimate relation of the tree to justice was no discovery of Judge Lynch (who, indeed, conceded it no primacy over the lamp-post and the bridge-girder) is made plain by the following passage from Morryster, who antedated him by two centuries: While in yt londe I was carried to see ye Ghogo tree, whereof I had hearde moch talk; but sayynge yt I saw naught remarkabyll in it, ye hed manne of ye villayge where it grewe made answer as followeth: "Ye tree is not nowe in fruite, but in his seasonne you shall see dependynge fr. his braunches all soch as have affroynted ye King his Majesty." And I was furder tolde yt ye worde "Ghogo" sygnifyeth in yr tong ye same as "rapscal" in our owne. Trauvells in ye Easte

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Black

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Dennis Miller

Look, all religion has done is to jump-start a grudge war over it's individual beliefs and at least in casinos everyone can get along, have a few drinks, play a little Black Jack and forget their problems.

Johnny Cash

You know, I wrote a song about why I wear black but maybe that's not quite it. I wear black because I'm comfortable in it. But then in the summertime when it's hot I'm comfortable in light blue.

Linda Thompson

Oh, he revolutionized music. You know, he was this young kid from abject poverty who grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee, and you know, was an amalgamation of lots of different styles of music, from black gospel to, you know, hillbilly.

Paul McCartney

Well, I mean we were kids who had looked at America as, you know, they're a great country, like a lot of the world does, you know, and you're British kids. Elvis Presley, you know, was from here or Motown, all the black artists that we loved from here.

Rush Limbaugh

White Liberals fight to keep black kids in bad schools, folks. You don't even have to recite the Pledge if you don't want to.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Black

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

Thomas Jefferson

1801-1809A black after hard labor through the day, will be induced by the slightest amusements to sit up till midnight, or later, though knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning.

Richard Nixon

1969-1974This means black and white together, as one nation, not two.

Jimmy Carter

1977-1981Nigeria is the largest country in Black Africa and the second largest oil supplier to the United States.

Ronald Reagan

1981-1989From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy.

Bill Clinton

1993-2001Just in the last couple of years, we've seen a man dragged to death in Texas just because he was black.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Black

"Black" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 85.84% of the time. "Black" is used about 22,547 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)85.84%19,354462
Noun (proper)13.47%3,0383,085
Noun (singular)0.58%13028,019
Lexical Verb (base form)0.07%1687,710
Lexical Verb (infinitive)0.04%8124,375
                    Total100.00%22,547N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Name Usage Frequency: Black

The following table summarizes the usage of "black" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.
NameUsage/GenderUsage per 100
million Persons
Rank in USA
BlackLast name63,000149
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Derived & Related Names: Black

The following table summarizes names derived from the word "black".
 
NameGenderLanguageMeaning
CedronN/ABiblical

Black

ChemarimsN/ABiblical

Black ones

KidronN/ABiblical

Making black or sad

NigerN/ABiblical

Black

SihorN/ABiblical

Black

BlakeMaleEnglish

To be black

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

 

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Usage in Company Names: Black

CountryNameCountryName
Thailand

Thai Carbon Black Public Company Limited

United Kingdom

A & C Black Plc.

USA

Black & Decker Corporation (The)

 (more examples...)  

Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.

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Cities: Black


1. Black, AL (town, FIPS 7120)
Location: 31.00939 N, 85.74321 W
Population (1990): 174 (80 housing units)
Area: 8.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip Code(s): 36314
Country: USA


2. Black, MO
Zip Code(s): 63625
Country: USA


3. Black, TX
Zip Code(s): 79035
Country: USA

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Expressions: Black

Expressions using "black": ad till one is black in the face all black alu black american black bear Amido Black aniline black as black as coal as black as jet as black as pitch as black as the ace of spades asian black grouse asiatic black bear be black in the face be in a black mood be in smb.'s black books be in the black beat black and blue beat smb. black and blue become black berlin black black acids Black act black africa black African Black alder black alkali black amber black and blue black and gold garden spider Black and tan black and white Black angel black Angus Black antimony black apricot black archangel black art black as soot black ash black ball black bamboo black bass black bead black bean black bear black bearberry Black beast black beatle black beauty black bee black beech black beetle black belt black bile black bindweed black birch black blasting powder black body black body locus black bomber Black bonnet black book Black Book of the Admiralty black box black bread black bream black brown black bryony black buck black buffalo black buffalofish black burst field black Butte Ranc black calla Black canker black canons black Canyon City black cap black caraway black carpet beetle black cat black catechu black cattle black chalk Black cherry black cherry tree black coat black coat of workers black coated worker black cock Black cockatoo black coffee black cohosh Black comedy black coot Black copper black coral black cottonwood black country black crappie black Creek. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "black": black-african, black-and-ambers, black-and-blue, black-and-blue livid, black-and-brown, black-and-gold, black-and-red, black-and-silver, black-and-tan, black-and-tan coonhound, black-and-tan terrier, black-and-white, black-and-white artist, black-and-white film, black-and-whiteness, black-and-whites, black-and-white-tiled, black-and-yellow, black-armoured, black-art, Black-a-vised, black-back, black-backed, black-backed gull, black-backs, black-ball, black-balled, black-banded, black-barred, black-based, black-bashing, black-bearded, black-beetles, black-bellied, black-belt, black-bereted, black-bibbed, black-bible, black-billed, black-billed cuckoo, black-bird, black-birder, black-biro, black-blood, black-blooded, black-blotched, black-blue, black-board, black-bodied, black-body, black-body radiation, black-booted, black-bordered, black-bound, black-box, black-box testing, black-branched, black-breasted, black-breasted flycatcher, black-breasted plover, Black-browed, black-brown, black-bullet, Black-burn, Black-buttock, black-button, black-cab, black-can, black-cap chickadee, black-capped, black-capped chickadee, black-carapaced, black-cattle, black-chadored, black-chalk, black-chested, black-chromed, black-clad, black-clawed, Black-clawson, black-cloaked, black-clothed, black-coated, black-coated workers, black-coffee-and-orange-juice, black-coloured, black-comedy, black-comic, black-covered, black-crested monkey, black-crowned, black-crowned night heron, black-crowned thrush, black-currant, black-dark, black-directed, black-dominated, black-doored, black-draped, black-dressed, black-dyed, black-eared, Black-earth, black-economy, black-edged, black-eye, black-eyebrowed, Black-eyed, Black-eyed pea, black-eyed Susan, black-eyed Susan vine, black-face, Black-faced, black-faced crow, black-fanged, black-feathered, black-fellow, black-feminist, black-figure, black-figured, black-filled, black-finished, black-flagged, black-fletched, black-flies, black-footed, black-footed albatross, Black-footed ferret, black-framed, black-friars, Black-friar-wynd, black-frilled, black-fringed, black-fronted, black-fronted bush shrike, black-fungus, black-garbed, black-glassed, black-glistening, black-gloved, black-gowned, black-green, black-grey, black-grey-white, black-haired, black-haired dark-haired, black-hat, black-hatted, black-head, black-head gull, black-headed, black-headed gull, black-headed minnow, black-headed snake, black-heads, black-hearted, black-hilted, black-hole, black-hooded, black-humour, black-influenced, Black-jack, black-jacketed, black-lace-becapped, black-lacquered, Black-land, black-lashed, black-lead, black-leaded, black-leading, black-leather, black-leathered, black-leaved, black-led, black-leg, black-legged tick, black-lensed, Black-letter, black-letter day, black-light, black-lined, black-listed, black-lists, black-magic, black-mail, black-mail', black-mailing, black-maned, black-mantillaed, black-market, black-marketeering, black-marketeers, black-mascara-daubed, black-masked, black-misted, black-moth, Black-mouthed, black-mucosae, black-muzzled, black-naped, black-necked, black-necked cobra, black-necked grebe, black-necked stilt, Black-necked stork, black-nyloned, Black-on-black, black-on-green, black-on-red, black-on-white, black-or-white, black-out, black-outed, black-outs, black-owned, black-painted, black-peppered, black-pigmented, black-plumed, black-powder, black-printed, black-purple, black-quarter, black-quiffed, black-red, black-rights, black-rim, black-rimmed, black-ringed, black-robed, black-rot, black-ruled, black-rust, black-sailed, black-satin, Black-scholes, Black-sea, black-shawled, black-sheep, black-sheet, black-shelled, black-shirted, black-shouldered, black-shrouded, black-skinned, black-skirted, black-slash, black-souled, black-sounding, black-spired, black-spots, black-spotted trout, black-stained, black-stem spleenwort, black-stemmed spleenwort, black-stockinged, black-stoled, black-stormy, black-straw, black-striped, black-studies, black-suede, black-suited, black-tailed, black-tailed deer, black-tarred, black-throated, black-tie, black-tie dinner, black-tied, black-tie-dressed, black-timbered, black-tinted, black-tipped, black-toothed, black-top, black-topped, black-un, black-uniformed, black-varnished, black-veiled, black-veined, black-vented, black-vested, black-water, black-whiskered vireo, black-white, black-winged, black-winged stilt, Black-women-artists, black-yellow.

Ending with "black": all-black, almost-black, anti-black, boot-black, brown-black, campbell-black, green-black, grey-black, near-black, night-black, non-black, purple-black, raven-black, red-and-black, soot-black, yellow-and-black.

Containing "black": blae bluish-black or gray-blue, blue-black-green, gold-black-striped, great black-backed gull, yellow black-breasted hill whistling plover.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Black

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

black planet

39,656

black model

2,278

black jack

12,778

black horse

2,009

black on blonde

9,350

black planet.com

2,003

black porn

7,982

black cock

1,959

black moorhouse

7,372

black man

1,919

black

6,786

black hole

1,868

black pussy

6,675

black lab

1,798

black decker

5,779

black hawk down

1,788

black and white

4,761

black sabbath

1,773

black eyed pea

4,751

cable black box

1,750

black hair style

4,629

black lesbian

1,699

black girl

4,497

black art

1,661

black sex

4,364

gay black man

1,642

black and white photography

3,732

black eyed susan

1,528

black ass

3,250

black dick

1,524

black woman

2,972

black magic

1,512

black panther

2,933

black and white photo

1,477

black booty

2,830

exploited black teen

1,453

black hair

2,791

black voice

1,447

black cat

2,731

black book

1,420
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Black

Language Translations for "black"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

swart. (various references)

   

Albanian

  

blozë (lampblack, pitch-black, smoke-black, smut, soot), zi (bereavement, dearth, famine, mourning, sables), zezak (ebony, negro), lyej (anoint, color, colour, daub, dye, lubricate, miniate, overspread, paint, retouch, smear, tint, whitewash), i zymtë (cheerless, crepuscular, dark, depressed, dismal, dour, drab, dreary, eerie, funeral, funereal, gloomy, glum, grim, heavy, leaden, macabre, mirk, mirthless, morose, mournful, muddy, murk, sad, sepulchral, somber, sombre, spleenful, stark, sulky, sullen, surly, tenebrous, winterly, wintry), i zi (bold, coaly, darksome, ebon, ebony, inky, mourning, nigrescent, pitchy, Raven, sable, sooty, unfortunate), i thellë (abstruse, deep, dense, distant, heavy, intense, out of the way, profound, saturated, visceral), i madh (bally, big, bouncing, capacious, capital, chuckle, chunking, close, grand, great, gross, intense, large, lumping, major, massive, mighty, pelting, thumping, vast, vasty, voluminous, whacking, whaling), i errët (abstruse, addle, ambiguous, arcane, blind, cloudy, dark, darkling, darksome, deep, delphian, delphic, dim, dingy, dusky, foggy, fuscous, gloomy, indeterminate, inky, low-browed, mirk, misted, muddy, murk, murky, nebulous, nigrescent, obscure, opaque, recondite, sable, sad, secret, shady, somber, sombre, tenebrous), e zezë (whole wheat). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏كحيل (darkened), ‏متشائم (biliousness, cynic, cynical, dim, gloomy, pessimistic), ‏متشح بالسواد, ‏معاد (antagonistic, hostile, inimical, iterative, opposite, repeated, unfriendly), ‏مظلم (dark, dim, dun, dusk, gloomy, mirk, murk, murky, obscure, overcast, tenebrous), ‏قاتم (cloudy, dark, deep, dim, dusky, gloomy, murky, overcast, sable), ‏سواد (blackness, nigritude), ‏سود (blacken, denigrate), ‏زنجي (coon, negro, rank), ‏اللون الأسود (sable), ‏أسود (blacken, blackly, ebony, lions, negro, raven, sable), ‏شىء أسود, ‏شائن (abominate, disgraceful, disgusting, dishonorable, dishonourable, heinous, hideous, ignominious, infamous, inglorious, nefarious, outrageous), ‏شرير (bad, black-hearted, dark, devil, diabolic, diabolical, evil, ill, iniquitous, maleficent, malicious, malign, nasty, naughty, rascally, reprobate, rogue, roguish, rude, sinister, spiteful, unholy, vicious, wicked), ‏شديد السواد (pitchy). (various references)

   

Asturian

  

prietu. (various references)

   

Aymara

  

ch'iyara. (various references)

   

Basque

  

beltz. (various references)

   

Bavarian

  

schwoarz. (various references)

   

Bemba

  

ukufita. (various references)

   

Blackfoot

  

sik. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

черня (calumniate, disparage, slander, spatter), черни дрехи (penitentials), черен цвят (nigrescence, sable), черен (nigrescent, sable, sooty, thick), тъмнокож, тъмен (blackish, cimmerian, dark, darkling, darksome, deep, dense, dusk, dusky, esoteric, fuscous, inky, low-browed, murky, neutral, obscure, opaque, overcast, sad, shady, somber, sombre, sooty, unlit), негър (blackamoor, jim crow, negro, sambo), начерням, мрачен (bleak, cheerless, comfortless, darksome, dejected, depressing, dim, dingy, dismal, drab, drear, dumpish, dusky, forbidding, gaunt, gloomy, glum, grave, grey, grim, grisly, heavy, inhospitable, joyless, low-browed, lowering, melancholy, mirk, morbid, morose, murk, murky, obscure, sad, saturnine, somber, sombre, sullen, sunless, tenebrous, thick, tristful), боядисвам в черно, почернял. (various references)

   

Catalan

  

negre (red). (various references)

   

Cebuano

  

itum. (various references)

   

Chamorro

  

áttilong. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

黑色 . (various references)

   

Cornish

  

du. (various references)

   

Croatian

  

crnoga. (various references)

   

Czech

  

bojkotovat (boycott), zlovìstný (baleful, fateful, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sinister, spooky, uncanny, unlucky), zlostný (angry, irascible, peppery), zaèernit (blacken, blot out), vyleštit (do up, gloss, rub up), tmavý (dark, darksome, deep, nubilous, shadowy, swarthy), ponurý (cheerless, dark, dismal, gaunt, gloomy, grim, lurid, somber, sombre), černý, èernidlo, èerný (dark, ghoulish, grimy, illegal, illicit, unlucky), èerò (blackness), špinavý (dirty, filthy, foul, grimy, grotty, grubby, impure, messy, murky, nasty, seamy, slovenly, smutty, sordid, squalid, unclean), špatný (bad, defective, evil, faulty, ill, improper, inferior, low, poor, weak, wicked, worthless, wrong). (various references)

   

Danish

  

sort (cultivar, strain, variety). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

zwart (Negro, pessimistic). (various references)

   

Ecuadorian Quechua

  

yana. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

nigro, nigra. (various references)

   

Faeroese

  

svartur. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

چرک وکثیف , لباس عزا, تیره (Caliginous, Dark, Gloomy, Heavy, Ilk, Indistinct, Lurid, Muddy, Murky, Nebulous, Obscure, Overcast, Thick, Turbid), تهدیدامیز (Minatory), سیاهی , سیاه کردن (Blacken, Denigrate), سیاه رنگی , سیاه رنگ , سیاه شده , سیاه (Grimy, Jetty, Negro, Sooty), زشت (Awkward, Awry, Backhand, Bad, Bawdy, Execrable, Gash, Gross, Hank, Heinous, Hideous, Homely, Horrid, Invidious, Maladroit, Nefarious, Offensive, Ugly, Uncouth, Unfavorable, Ungainly, Ungraceful, Unhandsome), عبوسانه (Sullen), دوده (Grime, Smut, Soot). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

musta (black horse). (various references)

   

French

  

noir (black man, blackly). (various references)

   

Frisian

  

swart. (various references)

   

German

  

schwarz (blackly, deeply tanned, dirty, glum, illicit, noir, papist, sable, shady, without paying), schwarze (black woman, brunette, dark man, inner, jim crow, papist). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

σκοτεινόσ (dark, dim, dingy, dusk, murky, obscure, opaque, recondite, shady, somber, sombre), νέγροσ (negro), μέλαν σώμα (black body, blackbody, complete radiator, full radiator, Planckian radiator), μαύροσ (colored, coloured, negro, pitchy, sable), μαύρος, μαυρισμένοσ, μουτζουρώνω (smudge, smut), ζωική αιθάλη (animal black), άσχημοσ (homely, nasty, seamy, shapeless, ugly, unlovely, unshightly, unsightly), άγριοσ (feral, ferocious, fierce, harsh, lupin, lupine, sassy, savage, truculent, violent, wild), αράπησ (arab, negro), αμαυρώνω (blacken, blemish, blot, darken, stain, tarnish), δυσφημώ (bespatter, blacken, decry, defame, denigrate, discredit, disparage, libel, malign, slander, slur, traduce, vilify), δυσοίωνοσ (inauspicious, inauspiciousness, ominous, pessimistic, portentous, sinister, sinistrous). (various references)

   

Hawaiian

  

zi. (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

שחור (blackness, dark, ebony, nigritude), קודר (cheerless, dark, dour, dun, gaunt, gloomy, gruff, morose, murky, saturnine, sepulchral, somber, sullen, tenebrous), אפל (dark, dim, gloomy, leaden, obscure, somber), כושי (ethiopian, moor, negro). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

fekete (collied, dark-skinned, dusky, inky, sable, smutty, sooty), néger (african, blacky, buffalo, coon, dark-skinned, negro, negroe, nig, nig-nog, spook), gonosz (bad, black-hearted, catty, evil, fell, felon, felonious, ill, iniquitous, maleficent, malicious, malignant, mischievous, nefarious, rancorous, shabby, shrewd, spiteful, ungodly, vicious, viperous, wicked), fekete szín (sable). (various references)

   

Icelandic

  

svartur. (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

hitam, gelap (dark, murky, secret, unclear). (various references)

   

Inuktitut

  

qirniqtuq. (various references)

   

Irish

  

dubh. (various references)

   

Italian

  

nero (dark, dire, gloomy, sable, tanned), negro (blackamoor, blackly, negro). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

黒い. (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ブラック , くろい (dark), くろ (dark). (various references)

   

Kongo

  

ndombe. (various references)

   

Korean 

  

검정 (Blacks, Qualification). (various references)

   

Lombard

  

negher. (various references)

   

Macedonian

  

crna. (various references)

   

Malay

  

hitam. (various references)

   

Manx

  

gorrym (blue, dark-skinned, negroid; washing blue), gobbal, dullyraghey, dooghey (blacken, darken, ink), doo (black headed, black-haired, bold, dark, dirty, ink, inky, negroid, sable). (various references)

   

Maori

  

mangu. (various references)

   

Maya

  

eek (star). (various references)

   

Mohawk

  

kahòntsi. (various references)

   

Norwegian

  

svart. (various references)

   

Occitan

  

negre. (various references)

   

Papago

  

chuk. (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

pretu, preto. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ackblay.(various references)

   

Polish

  

czarny. (various references)

   

Portuguese

  

preto (ebon, jim-crow, negro, sable, sambo), negro (blackamoor, blacky, ebon, jim-crow, mirk, murk, negro, sable, sambo). (various references)

   

Provencal

  

negre. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

negru (blackened, Brown, coon, dark, dirtiness, dirty, foul, ghost writer, grimy, hidden, jim crow, negro, penny-a-liner, sable, sun-burnt, swarthy, tawny, wicked). (various references)

   

Romansch

  

nair. (various references)

   

Romany

  

kalòo. (various references)

   

Ruanda

  

yirabura. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

черный (ebon, jet-black, menial). (various references)

   

Samoan

  

lanu uliuli. (various references)

   

Scottish

  

dubh (blot out, dark, darken). (various references)

   

Sepedi

  

so. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

vran (jet, raven), crnilo (blackness, jet, nigrescence), crnac (blackamoor, jig, negro), crnački (colored, coloured, negro), crna figura, crna boja, crn (dark, inky, jet, negro, raven). (various references)

   

Shona

  

-tema. (various references)

   

Sicilian

  

niuru. (various references)

   

Spanish

  

negro (black man, blacking, colored, coloured, coon, dark, ebony, gloom, gloomy, jim crow, Negro, nig-nog, pitchy, Raven, sable, stout). (various references)

   

Sranan

  

blaka. (various references)

   

Swahili

  

-eusi, eusi. (various references)

   

Swazi

  

-mnyáma. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

svart (sable, soul, under the counter, under the table). (various references)

   

Tagalog

  

maitím, itím. (various references)

   

Thai

  

ไร้ความหวัง, ชั่วร้าย (egregious, evil, fiendish, hellish, rapacious, sinful), ผิวดำ, สีดำ, ทำให้ดำ, คนผิวดำ, ดำ, มืด (mirky, tenebrous). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

kara (earth, ground, ivory black, land, nigr-, overland, sable, shore, smut, sooty, terra firma, territorial). (various references)

   

Turkmen 

  

gara. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

сажа (crock, smut, soot), чорнота (blackness, nigrescence, nigritude), чорнити (begrime, bespatter, denigrate, nigrify, worsen), чорний колір (sable), чорний (dark, negro), фарбувати у чорний колір, темний (abstruse, backwoods, cimmerian, dark, darkling, darksome, lowering, murk, murky, nightly, nigrescent, obscure, occult, opaque, shaded, smutty, somber, sombre), брудний (bawdy, beastly, chatty, dirty, dungy, filthy, foul, greasy, grimy, hoggish, lousy, mangy, messy, miry, mucky, muddy, nasty, obscene, puddly, sludgy, smeary, smudgy, smutty, sordid, sozzly, unclean). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

buồn rầu (chap-fallen, darkly, moody, morose, mournful, rueful, sad, sadly, sorrowful, sullen, woebegone, woeful, woefully, woesome), bẩn thỉu đen tối, vô hy vọng xấu xa, mồ hóng, màu đen sơn đen quần áo đen, ảm đạm (drear, dreary, dull, howling, mournful, stygian), đen mặc quần áo đen da đen tối; tối tăm dơ bẩn, độc ác; kinh tởm, áo tang người da đen bụi bẩn. (various references)

   

Welsh

  

du. (various references)

   

Yucatec

  

box. (various references)

   

Zulu

  

-mnyama. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Black

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

ater, atriorum, furva, furvum, niger, nigra, nigrae, nigri, nigrum. (various references)

Avestan200-600

sâmahe, vohu-gaonahe. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Bible Trace: Black

LanguageDateSourceMatthew Chapter 5, Verse 36
Greek (transliterated)250 BCSeptuagintMhte en th kefalh sou omoshV oti ou dunasai mian trica leukhn h melainan poihsai
Latin405VulgateNeque per caput tuum iuraveris quia non potes unum capillum album facere aut nigrum
Old English990West SaxonOðerne blacne.
Middle English1395WyclifFor thou maist not make oon heere white, ne blacke;
Renaissance English1526TyndaleNether shalt thou sweare by thy heed because thou canst not make one white heer or blacke:
Jacobean English1611King JamesNeither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Victorian English1833WebsterNeither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Basic English1964OgdenYou may not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Matched Bible Translations: Black

LanguageMatthew Chapter 5, Verse 36
CebuanoUg ayaw pagpanumpa tungod sa imong ulo, kay ikaw dili arang makapaputi ni makapaitom sa bisan usa na lang ka lugas nga buhok niini.
CroatianNi svojom se glavom ne zaklinji jer ni jedne vlasi ne možeš uèiniti bijelom ili crnom.
DanishDu må heller ikke sværge ved dit Hoved, thi du kan ikke gøre et eneste Hår hvidt eller sort.
DutchNoch bij uw hoofd zult gij zweren, omdat gij niet een haar kunt wit of zwart maken;
Finnishäläkä vanno pääsi kautta, sillä et sinä voi yhtäkään hiusta tehdä valkeaksi etkä mustaksi;
FrenchNe jure pas non plus par ta tête, car tu ne peux rendre blanc ou noir un seul cheveu.
GermanAuch sollst du nicht bei deinem Haupt schwören, denn du vermagst nicht ein einziges Haar schwarz oder weiß zu machen.
Haitian CreolePa fè sèman non plis sou tèt pa ou, paske ou pa ka fè yon sèl grenn cheve nan tèt ou tounen blan osinon nwa.
HungarianSe a te fejedre ne esküdjél, mert egyetlen hajszálat sem tehetsz fehérré vagy feketévé;
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hariJangan juga bersumpah demi kepalamu, sebab engkau sendiri tidak dapat membuat rambutmu menjadi putih atau hitam, biar hanya sehelai.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lamadan jangan engkau bersumpah demi kepalamu, karena tiadalah engkau berkuasa menjadikan putih atau hitam sehelai rambut pun;
ItalianNon giurare neppure per la tua testa, perché non hai il potere di rendere bianco o nero un solo capello.
LatvianArî pie savas galvas nezvçri, jo tu nevari nevienu matu padarît baltu vai melnu!
Manx GaelicChamoo looys oo liorish dty chione, er-yn-oyr nagh vod oo un renaig y yannoo bane ny doo.
MaoriKaua ano e oatitia tou matenga, e kore hoki e ahei i a koe te mea kia ma tetahi makawe, kia mangu ranei.
NorwegianHeller ikke skal du sverge ved ditt hode; for du kan ikke gjøre ett hår hvitt eller sort.
RumanianSq nu juri nici pe capul tqu, cqci nu poyi face un singur pqr alb sau negru.
RussianОЙ ЗПМПЧПА ФЧПЕА ОЕ ЛМСОЙУШ, РПФПНХ ЮФП ОЕ НПЦЕЫШ ОЙ ПДОПЗП ЧПМПУБ УДЕМБФШ ВЕМЩН ЙМЙ ЮЕТОЩН.
Shuar
SpanishNo jurarás ni por tu cabeza, porque no puedes hacer que un cabello sea ni blanco ni negro.
SwahiliWala usiape kwa kichwa chako, maana huwezi kuufanya hata unywele mmoja kuwa mweupe au mweusi.
Swedishej heller må du svärja vid ditt huvud, ty du kan icke göra ett enda hår vare sig vitt eller svart;
UmaNeo' wo'o mosumpa mpokahangai' woo' -ta, apa' uma tapakulei' mpakabula ba mpomo'eta wuluwoo' -ta, nau' ba hangkaho-wadi.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Black

Derivations

Words beginning with "black": blackamoor, blackamoors, blackball, blackballed, blackballing, blackballs, blackberries, blackberry, blackbird, blackbirded, blackbirder, blackbirders, blackbirding, blackbirds, blackboard, blackboards, blackbodies, blackbody, blackboy, blackboys, blackcap, blackcaps, blackcock, blackcocks, blacked, blacken, blackened, blackener, blackeners, blackening, blackenings, blackens, blacker, blackest, blackface, blackfaces, blackfin, blackfins, blackfish, blackfishes, blackflies, blackfly, blackguard, blackguarded, blackguarding, blackguardism, blackguardisms, blackguardly, blackguards, blackgum, blackgums. (additional references)

Words ending with "black": antiblack, bootblack, lampblack, nonblack, shoeblack. (additional references)

Words containing "black": antiblackism, antiblackisms, bootblacks, lampblacks, nonblacks, shoeblacks. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Black" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bacc, backg, Backx, balac, balak, balck, Balick, Belasco, blac, blace, blach, blacka, blacke, blackl, blackw, blacky, blacl, Blak, blake, Blaszk, blax, blcak, blck, blerk, blicky, Bliecq, blisk, blix, blockx, Bmac, bylak, Glack, klack. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Black"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "black" (pronounced bla"k)
3-l a" kclack, Flack, flak, lac, lack, plack, plaque, slack.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Black

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-b-c-k-l"

-1 letter: back, balk, calk, lack.

-2 letters: alb, bal, cab, kab, lab, lac.

-3 letters: ab, al, ba, ka, la.

 Words containing the letters "a-b-c-k-l"
 

+1 letter: blacks.

 

+2 letters: backlit, backlog, bechalk, becloak, blacked, blacken, blacker, blackly.

 

+3 letters: backfill, backflow, backhaul, backland, backlash, backless, backlist, backlogs, backslap, backslid, backtalk, baldrick, bechalks, becloaks, blackboy, blackcap, blackens, blackest, blackfin, blackfly, blackgum, blacking, blackish, blackleg, blackout, blacktop, blockade, blockage, blowback, bluejack, bucktail, callback, clambake, claybank, cookable, fallback, fullback, halfback, holdback, kickable, kickball, lockable, mockable, nonblack, packable, playback, plowback, pullback, rollback, scablike, slotback, tailback.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Images: Photo Album
8. Images: Digital Art
9. Sounds
10. Quotations: Familiar
11. Quotations: Historic
12. Quotations: Fiction
13. Quotations: Non-fiction
14. Quotations: Spoken
15. Quotations: Speeches
16. Usage Frequency
17. Names: Frequency
18. Names: Derived from
19. Names: Company Usage
20. Cities
21. Expressions
22. Expressions: Internet
23. Translations: Modern
24. Translations: Ancient
25. Bible Trace
26. Abbreviations
27. Acronyms
28. Derivations
29. Rhymes
30. Anagrams
31. Bibliography


  

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