blackamoor

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical and offensive: an obsolete racial label for a Black person, especially one perceived as African or North African; also formerly used for a Black servant

   The critical edition explains that blackamoor is an offensive historical racial term, not a neutral modern description.

From Middle English Black Moor or Blackamoor, combining black with Moor, a historical name applied broadly and imprecisely to Muslim North Africans and other dark-skinned people. European usage turned it into a racialized label; it is now obsolete and offensive except in critical discussion of historical language.

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