blackとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• blacke (obsolete)
• Black, (Internet slang) blk (race-related)
• blak (Australian Indigenous)

語源

From 中期英語 blak, black, blake, from 古期英語 blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”).

See also Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”), Old High German blah (“black”); also compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”).

Adjective sense 20 is a semantic loan from Cantonese 黑面 (hak1 min6, “to pull a long face, to scowl”).

発音

• enPR: blăk, IPA: /blæk/
• 韻: -æk
• ハイフネーション: black

形容詞

black (comparative blacker or more black, superlative blackest or most black)

1. (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.

   The items around him were black in colour.

   Synonyms: dark, swart; see also Thesaurus:black

   Antonyms: white, light

2. (of a location or setting) Without light.

   Synonyms: dark, gloomy; see also Thesaurus:dark

   Antonyms: bright, illuminated, lit

3. (sometimes capitalized) Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc.) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. (See usage notes below.)
   • 1969, “Is It Because I'm Black”, performed by Syl Johnson:

     Somebody tell me, what can I do / Something is holding me back / Is it because I'm black?

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39:

     I believed that a huge injustice had been perpetrated for hundreds of years on every black man, woman, and child in the United States.

   • 1975 May, Terry Hodges, Ebony, page 10:

     I am a young, light-skinned black woman, and truer words were never written of the problem we light-skinned blacks have had to live with. The article explains in-depth what it's like.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

     The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.

   1. (US, UK, South Africa) Belonging to or descended from any of various sub-Saharan African ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
4. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups (as described above).

   black drinking fountain; black hospital

5. (card games, of a card) Of the spades or clubs suits.

   Coordinate term: red (“of the hearts or diamonds suits”)

   I was dealt two red queens, and he got one of the black queens.

6. Bad; evil; ill-omened.

   black magic

   • 1655, Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis., London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168:

     […] what a black day would that be, when the Ordinances of Jesus Christ should as it were be excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     Nor were there wanting some, who, after the departure of Jenny, insinuated that she was spirited away with a design too black to be mentioned, and who gave frequent hints that a legal inquiry ought to be made into the whole matter, and that some people should be forced to produce the girl.

   • 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:

     She had seen so much of the blacker side of human nature that blackness no longer startled her as it should do.

7. Expressing menace or discontent; threatening; sullen.

   He shot her a black look.

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     The lassie had grace given her to refuse, but with a woeful heart, and Heriotside rode off in black discontent, leaving poor Ailie to sigh her love. He came back the next day and the next, but aye he got the same answer.

   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 14:

     We see the impression that the perils of these unknown seas made on Minoan art in a clay seal impression that comes from Knossos. A sea monster, with head and jaws like a dog's, is rising from the waves and attacking a boatman who stands defending himself in his skiff. […] This is the black side of the sense of "the magic and the mystery of the sea" that finds a lighter expression in the octopus and sea-shell designs of the vases, and the flying fish on porcelain and frescoes.

8. (of objects or markets) Illegitimate, illegal, or disgraced.
   • 1952, The Contemporary Review, volume 182, page 338:

     Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.

9. Foul; dirty, soiled.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 270, column 2:

     Then trip him, that his heeles may kicke at Heauen, / And that his Soule may be as damn'd aud blacke / As Hell, whereto it goes.

10. (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
11. (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.

    Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.

12. (board games, chess) Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess, the set used by the player who moves second) (often regardless of the pieces' actual colour).

    The black pieces in this chess set are made of dark blue glass.

    • 2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE‎, page 21:

      Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.

13. (typography) Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color.

    Coordinate term: white

    Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ (“WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX”); ☛ (“BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX”).

14. (politics) Of or pertaining to anarchism; anarchist.
15. (German politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.

    After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.

16. Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.

    5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.

    black operations/black ops; black room; black site

17. Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
    • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:

      Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.

    • 2014, J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 168:

      But a hel-rúne was one who knew secret black knowledge – and the association of hell with the dead shows that the gloss in O.H.G. 'necromancia' is very close.

18. (Ireland, now derogatory) Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic. (Compare blackmouth ("Presbyterian").)

    the Black North ― Ulster

    the Royal Black Institution

    • 1812, Edward Wakefield, An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political‎, volume 2, page 737:

      There is a district, comprehending Donegal, the interior of the county of Derry, and the western side of Tyrone, which is emphatically called by the people "the Black North," an expression not meant, as I conceive, to mark its greater exposure to the westerly winds, but rather its dreary aspect.

    • 1841 March 20, "Intelligence; Catholicity in Ulster" Catholic Herald (Bengal), Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 27:

      Even in the "black North"—in " Protestant Ulster"—Catholicity is progressing at a rate that must strike terror into its enemies, and impart pride and hope to the professors of the faith of our sainted forefathers.

    • 1886, Thomas Power O'Connor, The Parnell Movement: With a Sketch of Irish Parties from 1843, page 520:

      To the southern Nationalist the north was chiefly known as the home of the most rabid religious and political intolerance perhaps in the whole Christian world; it was designated by the comprehensive title of the 'Black North.'

    • 1914 May 27, "Review of The North Afire by W. Douglas Newton", The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume 86, page t:

      Now April's brother, once also holding a commission in that regiment, was an Ulster Volunteer, her father a staunch, black Protestant, her family tremulously "loyal" to the country whose Parliament was turning them out of its councils.

    • 1985 April, J. A. Weaver, “John Henry Biggart 1905-1979 - A portrait in respect and affection”, in Ulster Medical Journal, volume 54, number 1, page 1:

      He [Sir John Henry Biggart] was personally amused at having once been called "a black bastard".

    • 2007 September 6, Fintan O'Toole, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, volume 29, number 17, page 35:

      He had been playing Gaelic football for Lisnaskea Emmets, his local team in County Fermanagh, against a team from nearby Brookeborough, when someone from the opposing team called him a ‘black cunt’. ‘Black’, in this case, was a reference not to the colour of his skin but to his religion. It is short for ‘Black Protestant’, a long-standing term of sectarian abuse.

19. Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc.) that is dark (or black).

    the black knight; black bile

    1. (taxonomy, especially) Dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.

       black birch; black locust; black rhino

20. (Singapore, Singlish, of someone's face) Sullen and solemn; bad-tempered and unhappy.
    • 2009, Jean Tay, Boom, Epigram Books, →ISBN, Act I, scene x, page 46:

      They gave up trying to talk to me. Ever since I gave them that big scolding. But every time they see me, all face black black.

使用する際の注意点

• In the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa, black typically refers to people of African descent, including indirect African descent via the Caribbean, and including those with light skin. In Australia, Aboriginal Australians are often referred to as or identify as black. In New Zealand, Maori people are sometimes referred to as or identify as black.
• Some style guides recommend capitalizing Black in reference to the racial group, while others advise using lowercase (black); lowercase is more common.

派生語

関連する語

派生した語

• Bislama: blak
• Sranan Tongo: blaka
  • Aukan: baaka
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: blaaka
• Tok Pisin: blak
• Torres Strait Creole: blaik
• → Dutch: black
• → French: black
• → Greek: μπλάκης (blákis)

名詞

black (countable and uncountable, plural blacks)

1. (countable and uncountable) The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.

   black:  

   Synonym: blackness

   Antonym: whiteness

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.

   • 2009, Harry Henderson, Computer Science and Technology, Revised edition, →ISBN, page 93:

     CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. This four component color system is standard for most types of color printing, since black is an ink color in printing but is simply the absence of color in video.

2. (countable and uncountable) A black dye or pigment.

   Antonym: white

3. (countable) A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
4. (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Death”, in Essays:

     Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.

5. (countable, sometimes capitalised, often offensive) A member or descendant of any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
   • 1863, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter XXIV, in Miles Wallingford‎:

     "How! They surely cannot pretend that the black is an Englishman?" "There are all kinds of Englishmen, black and white, when seamen grow scarce. […] "

   • 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash‎:

     But presently the negro seized the Hindoo by the throat; the Hindoo just pricked him in the arm with his knife, and the next moment his own head was driven against the side of the cabin with a stunning crack […] The cabin was now full, and Sharpe was for putting both the blacks in irons.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 123:

     Numa was about to charge—there was little time in which to compare various methods or weigh the probable results of any. And then a number of things happened, almost simultaneously—the lion sprang from his ambush toward the retreating black—Tarzan cried out in warning—and the black turned just in time to see Numa halted in mid-flight by a slender strand of grass rope, the noosed end of which had fallen cleanly about his neck.

   • 2004, Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising, page 108:

     Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks, accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters.

6. (uncountable, informal) Blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups.

   black don't crack

7. (countable, billiards, snooker, pool) The black ball.
8. (countable, baseball) The edge of home plate.
9. (countable, British) A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
10. (countable, informal) Ellipsis of blackcurrant.

    Pernod and black; snakebite and black; cider and black

    1. (chiefly UK) Blackcurrant as syrup or crème de cassis used for cocktails.
11. (countable, chess) The person playing with the black set of pieces.

    At this point black makes a disastrous move.

    • 2023 January 13, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Carlsen takes on young guns at Wijk as world champion eyes record”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 23 January 2023:

      1...Qd3 2 Ne1 Nd2! wins since 3 Nxd3 Rxf1 mate while 3 Qxc7+ Kg6 only delays the end. The best White can do is 3 Qc3+ Qxc3 4 Rxc3 Rxe1 when Black also wins the Bf1 and will be two pieces up.

12. (countable) Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
    • 1644, Kenelme [i.e., Kenelm] Digby, Two Treatises. In the One of which, the Nature of Bodies; in the Other, the Nature of Mans Soule; is Looked into: In Way of Discovery, of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules, Paris: […] Gilles Blaizot, →OCLC:

      the black or sight of the eye

13. (obsolete, countable) A stain; a spot.
    • 1619, William Rowley, All's Lost by Lust:

      defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust

14. A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
15. (US, slang) Marijuana.
    • 2008, Jesmyn Ward, Where the Line Bleeds, Bloomsbury (2018), page 48:

      He pulled on the black, the tip of the filter hot and malleable between his lips, and felt a cool tingling coat the simmer in his chest and begin to eat away at it in small bites.