English

Noun

1. (degrading) A person with dark skin, especially (but not necessarily) one from northern Africa

   Quotations

   • 2003: ""What!" exclaimed the Prince, "the music is by the blackamoor (a black Moor). Well, my fine blackamoor, henceforth thou art in my service."" — Beethoven: Revealing His True Identity, Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn http://www.stewartsynopsis.com/Beethoven.htm
   • 2002:"What had Pringle done to merit such a severe penalty? He had said to Adusei during a criminal trial, "How's the blackamoor?". The Tribunal found that this was offensive, which clearly it was, and constituted an act of racial discrimination." — An English Bar Disciplinary Tribunal went over the top when dealing with a racial harassment case., Barbara Hewson http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000002D42D.htm
   • 1958: "Gage noted the clothing of the slaves of the Spanish nobles, and silk was common to them. "The gentlemen have their train of blackamoor slaves, some a dozen, some half a dozen, waiting on them, in brave and gallant liveries, heavy with gold and silver lace, with silk stockings on their black legs, and roses on their feet, and swords by their sides."" — The Prophet Said Silk, Maurice W. Connell (http://www.shields-research.org/Scriptures/BoM/SILK02.html) citing Thomas Gage's Travels in the New World, J. Eric S. Thompson (editor), page 73

2. a blackamoor slave, a blackamoor servant; and hence any slave, servant, inferior, or child

   Quotations

   • 1999: She seems to have been a serious girl, but she remembered her father's characterization of her as his "Little blackamoor."" — Lost Girl, Doug Davis http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/annafreud.losing.html

   • "In 1596 Elizabeth I had already decreed that all "blackamoors" should be sent back to Spain or Portugal as they were disturbing local labour markets. It became very fashionable for the wealthy to have "blackamoor" page boys and personal servants, as their complexions set off the pale-skinned beauty of the women of the family." — Annotation to The Diary of Samuel Pepys by "Mary", http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/08/10/index.php citing Restoration London, Liza Picard, pages 178-179.

3. a stylized Negro

   Argent, three blackamoors heads couped sable, capped or, fretty gules.

References

• Shakespeare’s Moor:The Sources and Representations, accessed on 2005-04-22

Synonyms

• black
• Negro

Translations

• Blackamoor, Lancashire
• Moors, Muslims of Spain and North Africa
• Blackamoor, for a dark skinned person
  • in heraldry, a stylized Negro or Maure
  • Blackamoors (sculpture), sculptures of Negro figures
• Blackamoor (jewelry), a type of jewelry
• Black tetra, a small fish (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi)