blackamoor

1 9.9

Old offensive word for a person with dark skin from Africa or whose family came from there

noun
/ˈblækəˌmɔr/

Slur

: [término anticuado y ofensivo para persona negra]

These "Negroes" were taken to Cuba as slaves and later were brought to America, where the term "Negro" was later used to replace "Blackamoor" and "Ethiopian," English words for Black people.

Examples

Look at the Folio prompter's copy from Jew of Venice, see the second act, the seventh scene, the Prince of Monaco, a blackamoor he wrote him with gleeks from his black skin, Portia says.

Fiction book (1999)
Ceramic blackamoor bust, A-2242-11

Academic text (2011)
To a well-endowed blackamoor like yourself... ...it seems impossible that a freak like me could enjoy the pleasure of a woman.

Wild Wild West (1999)
In Shakespeare's time, the term blackamoor was often used in literature to refer to characters of African descent.
The museum displayed an antique painting featuring a blackamoor servant in the grand estate.
Historical texts sometimes mention a blackamoor among the entourage of royalty in medieval courts.

Synonyms

Black person

vsblackamoor

395 1.2

A person with dark skin whose family comes from Africa

is an archaic and offensive term for the same people

Surface Forms

blackamoor singular

blackamoors plural

Morphology

blackamoor = black + Moor (transparent) = black + moor

Composition is a straightforward combination of 'black' + 'Moor', so the sense can be derived from the components, though the term is archaic and offensive.

Etymology

Blackamoor joins black (meaning 'dark') and Moor (an old word for people from North Africa). It once meant a person of African descent, but today it is old-fashioned and offensive, so it is not used in polite language.