Negro

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dated and now generally offensive: a historical racial label for a Black person; retained in quotations and some historical institutional names

   The editor explains why the historical document uses Negro while the modern commentary uses Black.

2. 2
   adj

   dated and now generally offensive: relating to Black people, chiefly in historical usage or fixed historical names

   The archive preserves records of the United Negro College Fund under its established name.

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese negro ("black"), from Latin niger. It was once common in English racial classification and was used in some organizations’ own names, but social usage changed; it is now dated and generally offensive outside historical quotation or established names.

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