Blackcoat is a compound of black + coat, alluding to the black clerical dress; an archaic colloquialism for a clergyman, paralleling redcoat for a soldier. The historical trail runs through blæc in Old English and cote in Old French. Morphologically, blackcoat is transparent: it is a compound of black + coat, alluding to the black clerical dress. Used as a noun, blackcoat now means "archaic term for a clergyman, from the black clerical garb", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as black and coat. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.