negress

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an old-fashioned and now offensive term formerly used for a Black woman or girl

   The editor retained the word negress in the historical quotation but added a note explaining that it is now offensive.

Borrowed in the late eighteenth century from French négresse, the feminine form of nègre, and reinforced in English by Negro + the feminine suffix -ess. Once used as a racial classification, the word is now offensive and should normally appear only in historical quotation or discussion.

Topics