Black market, the retailer who ignores official procedure, is not seen until 1935 when it was a noun. The adjective followed in 1935, but not until rationing during the Second World War did it achieve any kind of popularity.
Black leg when referring to strike breakers is not seen until 1865, but had been used since at least 1771 to refer to a ‘swindler’, particularly those involved in equestrian events.
Black drop, first seen in 1823, was a liquid preparation of opium used for medicinal purposes.
Black magic is first seen around 1300, this a natural progression as the colour was associated with anything considered sinful or sorrowful.
Black flag is first seen in 1590, a reference to a flag flown by those (such as pirates) who would show no mercy. So nice of them to tell us, don’t you think?
Black dog, first seen in 1826, is used as an adjective to mean ‘melancholy’.
Black belt, in the judo sense, is not seen until 1913. It is also used in the USA to describe the fertility of the soil.
Black and white, not the colours but a reference to something in print, is first seen in the 1650s. Now a printing reference came about before this and, from 1590, the phrase was reversed in ‘white and black’.
In the black, ie not in debt, is not found until 1922. The idea being any positive figure would appear in black and negative values (debt) in red.
Black eye has had three uses over the years, these uses having overlapped. The discolouration of the eye following injury dates from around 1600; a reference to an injury to one’s pride from 1744; and to refer to one with a bad reputation from 1880s.
Black-eyed Susan, any of several species of flower, first recorded in 1881. Note it was also the title of a poem by the early 18th century poet John Gay; and a popular 19th century British stage play.
Black swan is a fairly popular pub name and often depicts the bird native to Australia and New Zealand. Yet despite James Cook not landing in Australia until 1770, prior to which one of the requirements of being classified a swan was to be white, the phrase (and pub names) had existed since at least the early 14th century, more than four centuries before Cook was even born. This is because it had been used as a description of anything extremely rare or non-existent – in Latin rara avis, and is why the image appears on heraldic symbols. Note, ‘white crow’ and ‘blue dahlia’ were also used in the same context and for the same reason – I look forward to a pint in the White Crow.
Lamp black is a pigment (or ink) named as it was original gathered from the soot produced in oil lamps.
Black light is light beyond the visible spectrum, and first coined in 1927.
Black tie may have been worn before its first record of 1848, but is not used as a description for dress code until 1933.
Black hearted, describing one who is inherently cruel or malicious, first appears in 1792.
Black Hills in South Dakota – Doris Day once sang about wanting to be taken back to them – is a place name coming from Lakhota paha –sapa as the heavily forested sides of the hills appear dark from a distance.
Black Shirts is first adopted as the name of the Italian paramilitary unit founded by Mussolini in 1922, albeit this three years after their founding. It is simply a reference to the colour of their uniform.
Blackball is to exclude (usually by voting). First seen in 1770, it refers to exclusion by a secret ballot.
Blacklist, names of those excluded or banned from something, appears as early as 1610, and had been inferred to more than twenty years earlier still in someone being ‘black booked’.
Blackout was first used in 1908 in referring to a darkened stage. The sense ‘loss of memory’ dates from 1934; ‘extinguishing lights in an air raid’ in 1935; and as early as 1888 to refer to blacked out information in a written document because deemed objectionable, sensitive, or secret.
Blackguard’s origins are unclear, but we do know it appears in writing in the 1530s when it was used to mean ‘scoundrel’. Not until 1736 did it have the modern sense of ‘criminal, coarse person’.
Black comedy has certainly been around for centuries, but was not described as such before 1961. Prior to that the term used would be gallows humour, seen since the 19th century, and the change may have been inspired by the French expression comedie noire, first recorded in 1958, although the French ‘black comedy’ referred to a ‘macabre or farcical rendering of a violent or tragic theme’.
Blackmail is first recorded around 1550 – the term from Old English mal and Middle English male meaning ‘lawsuit’ – and originally referred to money (or goods) paid in what would today be seen as a protection racket. The modern sense of ‘blackmail’ is not seen until 1826. It is also worthwhile mentioning the sixteenth century terms ‘silver mail’, rent paid in money rather than in goods, and the indiscretion resulting in a fine for fornication known as ‘buttock mail’.
Black hole first appears in 1968 in a paper on astrophysics. It is often said the original series of Star Trek is the first use of the term ‘black hole’, but this is not the case – in the episode entitled The Arena, first broadcast in January 1967, the term used in ‘black planet’, which is clear, in the context of the story, not the same thing. The term may have been inspired by the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta of 19 June 1756, when the Newab of Bengal retaliated against the British capturing Fort William by imprisoning 146 British Prisoners of War in a punishment cell overnight. That cell was designed to hold just four individuals and only 23 were alive when released.
Black coffee was certainly drunk before 1796, but is not referred to as such before then. Note, the sense of ‘black’ coffee is not thought to have referred to coffee without milk (or cream) but with nothing added at all.
