Forms: 6 blake More, Blacke Moryn, black a Moore, 6–7 blacke Moore, blackmoor(e, 7 Black-Moor(e, -More, -moor, black Moor, Blackmore, -moore, Blackemore, Black-a-Moore, Black-amoore, blackeamoore, 7–8 Blackamore, Blackamoor(e, 7– blackamoor. [= Black Moor, a form actually used down to middle of 18th c. Blackamoor is found 1581: of the connecting a no satisfactory explanation has been offered. The suggestion that it was a retention of the final -e of ME. black-e (obs. in prose before 1400) is, in the present state of the evidence, at variance with the phonetic history of the language, and the analogy of other black- compounds. Cf. black-a-vised.]
1. A black-skinned African, an Ethiopian, a Negro; any very dark-skinned person. (Formerly without depreciatory force; now a nickname.)
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 212. I am a blake More borne in Barbary.
1548. Thomas, Ital. Gram., Ethiopo, a blacke More, or a man of Ethiope.
1552. Huloet, Blacke Moryns or Mores.
1581. T. Howell, Deuises (1879), 184. Like one that washeth a black a Moore white.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 239. Shee is painted like a blackmoore.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 98. This is the Blackamore that by washing was turned white.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. i. 80. I care not and she were a Black-a-Moore.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. 95. The Negro’s, which we call the Blacke-Mores.
1631. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 308. The Blackmoore may sooner change his skin, the Leopard his spots.
1666. Pepys, Diary (1879), VI. 46. For a cook maid we have used a blackmoore.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. III. (1852), 576. The instruction of the poor blackamores.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., Lett. Ap. 26. The first day we came to Bath, he … beat two black-a-moors.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 271. As far below the reality as a blackamoor is unlike the sun.
b. attrib.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, 36. A Coach drawne with foure milke white horses … with a black-a-Moore boy vpon euery horse.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, I. 403. To Blackmoor-land the Gods went yesterday.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4238/8. A Blackamore Man called Cæsar. Ibid. (1716), No. 5434/3. Run away … a Black Moore Boy.
† c. Blackamoor’s teeth: cowry shells. Obs.
1700. W. King, Transactioneer, 36. He has Shells called Blackmoors Teeth, I suppose … from their Whiteness.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 334. Known by the Name of Cowries amongst Merchants, or of Blackamore’s Teeth among other Persons.
2. fig. A devil.
1663. Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., IV. vi. He’s dead long since, and gone to the Blackamores below.
3. attrib. Black-skinned, quite black.
1813. J. Forbes, Orient. Mem., I. 325. The first blackamoor pullen I ever saw was here: the outward skin of the fowl was a perfect negro.
1856. Capern, Poems (ed. 2), 90. Some blackamoor rook.
