Blackamoor

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈblæk.əˌmɔː(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A person of African descent, particularly one portrayed in European literature and art during the Renaissance and early modern periods
2. A historical term referring to a dark-skinned person of African origin, often used in European artistic and literary contexts from medieval times onward
3. An archaic designation for a person of Black African heritage, particularly as depicted in European Renaissance and early modern cultural representations

Etymology: "Blackamoor" is a compound of "black" and "Moor," but the two parts did not join in a single step. The older form was "blackmoor," which combined "black" with "Moor," the name English speakers used for North African and Iberian Muslims, and "blackamoor" arose when an extra "-a-" was inserted into that word, a change that linguists describe as an epenthetic vowel added for ease of pronunciation. The "Moor" half carries most of the history. In English the term was applied loosely to people with dark complexions from many parts of Africa, and "blackamoor" came to describe such people as they appeared in Renaissance and early modern European literature and art. Because the word now reads as a racial slur, it is rarely used outside historical discussion, and dictionaries mark it accordingly.