negro

See also: Negro, négro, and ñegro

English

The term Negro was advanced by American polymath W. E. B. Du Bois.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese negro (“black”), from Latin nigrum, masculine accusative case of niger (“black”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”). Doublet of noir.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈniɡɹoʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈniːɡɹəʊ/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Adjective

negro (not comparable)

1. (dated, now offensive) Relating to the black ethnicity.
   • 1963 April, “Anti-bias Coffee Klatsch: Windy City Interfaith Project Fights Bigotry with Coffee, Cookies and Conversation”, in Ebony, volume XVIII, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, ISSN 0012-9011, page 67:

     Recently, on a wintry Sunday, some 2,500 white Chicago area residents embarked on a strange safari across the city, determined to do what most of them had never done before—visit a Negro home. Eager to purge themselves of ignorance about the city's "other half," they were participants in Interracial Home Visit Day, a "Coffee Klatsch" co-sponsored by local Catholic, Jewish and Protestant groups in an effort to eliminate racial bigotry and hate.

2. (dated, now offensive) Black or dark brown in color.

Usage notes

In the United States of America, the word negro is considered acceptable only in a historical context or in proper names such as the United Negro College Fund. Black, which replaced negro from 1966 onward, or the more recent African-American (from the 1980s), are the preferred alternatives, with neither being categorically preferred as an endonym (self-designation) or by publications.

Before 1966, negro was accepted and in fact the usual endonym – consider The Negro, 1915, by W. E. B. Du Bois – which itself replaced the older colored in the 1920s, particularly under the advocacy of Du Bois (who advocated capitalization as Negro). Following the coinage and rise of Black Power and Black pride in the 1960s, particularly after 1966, the term black (occasionally Black) became preferred, and negro became offensive; in 1968 negro was still preferred by most as a self-designation, while by 1974 black was preferred; usage by publications followed.

See also discussion at Wikipedia.

Related terms

• negress
• negroid

 

Translations

offensive: relating to the black ethnicity

• Bulgarian: негър (bg) (negǎr)
• Finnish: neekeri- (fi)
• French: nègre (fr)

• German: schwarz (de)
• Japanese: 黒人 (ja) (kokujin)

black or dark brown in color

• Bulgarian: чернокож m (černokož)
• German: schwarz (de)

• Maori: kirimangu

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} zwart (nl), ^{(please verify)} zwarte (nl)
• German: ^{(please verify)} schwarz (de)

• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} černošský, ^{(please verify)} čierny

Noun

negro (plural negroes or negros)

1. (dated, now offensive) Alternative letter-case form of Negro: a person of Black African ancestry.
   • 1867, Mayne Reid, Quadrupeds: what they are and where found (page 141)

     The negroes believe that its presence has a sanitary effect upon their cattle […]

Synonyms

(noun):

• blackamoor

(adjective and noun):

• black, Black
• African-American (nonstandard, US)

Hypernyms

(noun):

• colored
• colored person
• person of color

Hyponyms

(adjective and noun):

• Afro-American
• African-American (in the proper sense)
• negress / Negress

Derived terms

• negro yam
• benegro

Translations

Negro — see Negro

See also

• mulatto
• octaroon
• quadroon

Anagrams

• Egnor, Goren, Groen, Norge, Rengo, Rogen, ergon, genro, goner, grone, ornge, reong

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Aragonese

Etymology

Akin to Spanish negro, from Latin niger.

Adjective

negro m sg (feminine singular negra, neuter singular negro, masculine and neuter plural negros, feminine plural negres)

1. black (color)

References

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002) , “negro”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN

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Cebuano

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɪɡɾu/

Etymology

From Spanish negro.

Noun

negro (feminine negra)

1. (offensive, vulgar) A dark-skinned person.
2. (offensive, ethnic slur, vulgar) A person of African descent; a black person.

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Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈneɡro/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɡro

Noun

negro (accusative singular negron, plural negroj, accusative plural negrojn)

1. a Negro
   • 1897 June, A. Kofman, “El Heine: La sklavoŝipo”, in Lingvo Internacia, volume 2, number 6-7, page 89:

     “Ses centojn da negroj mi ĉe Senegal
     Akiris je prezo profita,
     Malmola viando, simila al ŝton’,
     La membroj — el ŝtalo forĝita.”

     “600 negros at Senegal I acquired at a profitable price, hard meat, like stone, the members - from steel forged.”

   Hyponym: negrino

Derived terms

• negreco (“negritude”)
• negristo (“a slave merchant of Negros”)
• negroida (“negroid”)

 

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Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese negro, from Latin nigrum, accusative of niger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈneɣɾʊ]

Adjective

negro m (feminine singular negra, masculine plural negros, feminine plural negras)

1. black, dark colored
   • 1281, Clarinda de Azevedo Maia (ed.), História do galego-português. Estado linguístico da Galiza e do Noroeste de Portugal do século XII ao século XVI (com referência á situação do galego moderno). Coimbra: I.N.I.C., page 133:

     Mando o meu manto de broneta negra a Eluira Ffernandez de Uilar

     I bequeath my robe of black brunet cloth to Elvira Fernandez de Vilar

2. (figuratively) sad, unfortunate, ill-fated
   • 1370, R. Lorenzo (ed.), Crónica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 467:

     seméllame, fillo, que ora son cõpridos de tj os soños que eu sonaua et as uisiões que uij́a et as coytas grãdes que sofría ẽno coraçõ, que cada día se me fazía negro et triste.

     it seems to me, my son, that now you have accomplished the dreams I dreamed and the visions I envisioned and the big sorrows I suffered in my heart, that each day was black and sad to me

   • 1370, R. Lorenzo (ed.), Crónica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 742:

     en negra ora naçí

     At an unfortunate hour I was born

Derived terms

• fame negra
• Montenegro
• negral
• Negral
• Negreira
• Negrelos
• Negro
• nigromancia
• noite negra
• touquinegra

 

Noun

negro m (feminine singular negra, masculine plural negros, feminine plural negras)

1. black (colour)
2. black person

Usage notes

This last usage is, a priori, non pejorative; still, periphrases as persoa de cor are usually preferred in formal context, if needed at all

References

• “negro” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “negr” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “negro” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “negro” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “negro” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Interlingua

Noun

negro (plural negros)

1. black person, usually black man, negro

Related terms

• negra
• negre

 

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Italian

Alternative forms

• nero

Etymology

From Latin nigrum, accusative form of niger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈne.ɡro/
• Hyphenation: né‧gro

Adjective

negro (feminine negra, masculine plural negri, feminine plural negre)

1. (archaic) black
2. (now offensive) negro

Noun

negro m (plural negri)

1. (now offensive, ethnic slur, now vulgar) nigger

Related terms

• negriero
• negritudine
• negroide
• nero

 

Anagrams

• regno, regnò, rogne

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Ladino

Etymology

From Old Spanish negro (“black”). Cognate with Spanish negro.

Adjective

negro (Latin spelling)

1. bad
   • 1979, Kamelia Shahar, “La verdadera felisidad”, in Aki Yerushalayim, number 1, page 5:

     Eliau Anavi ke lo estava mirando d'enfrente se aserko de el i le disho: Dime ombre, deke estas de negra umor ?

     The prophet Elijah, who was watching him from across, approached him and said: Tell me, man, why are you in a bad mood?

   • 2018 November 21, Silvyo OVADYA, “Un fotografo modesto ma korajoso”, in Şalom‎^[3]:

     Ma estos diyas, la mas grande partida de los filmos negativos estan en una negra situasyon en la umidita de un vyejo apartamento.

     But these days, the majority of the film negatives are in a bad situation in the dampness of an old apartment.

   Synonym: malo

See also

• preto (“black”)

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Old Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin nigrum, accusative of niger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈne.ɡɾo/

Adjective

negro m (plural negros, feminine negra, feminine plural negras)

1. black
   • 13th century C.E., Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, , E codex, cantiga 68 (facsimile):

     […] chus negro ca pez.

     […] blacker than pitch.

   Synonym: preto

Descendants

• Galician: negro
• Portuguese: negro

See also

Colors in Old Portuguese · coores, colores (layout · text)
branco, blanco, alvo	gris	negro, preto
vermello	castanho	amarelo
	verde
		azur
	cardẽo	rosa

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Portuguese

buraco negro

homem negro

Etymology

From Old Portuguese negro, from Latin nigrum, accusative of niger.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈne.ɡɾu/, [ˈne.ɣɾu]
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈne.ɡɾu/
• Hyphenation: ne‧gro

Noun

negro m (plural negros, feminine negra, feminine plural negras)

1. black (the darkest colour)

   Synonym: preto

2. black; negro (dark-skinned person)

   Synonyms: nego (colloquial), preto (often offensive), afrodescendente (formal)

Adjective

negro m (feminine singular negra, masculine plural negros, feminine plural negras, comparable)

1. (somewhat formal) black in colour

   Synonym: preto (colloquial)

2. black; dark-skinned

   Synonym: preto (often offensive)

3. (literary) dark (associated with evil)

   Cavaleiro negro. ― Dark knight.

Inflection

Inflection of negro

	singular		plural
	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
positive	negro	negra	negros	negras
comparative	mais negro	mais negra	mais negros	mais negras
superlative	o mais negro negríssimo	a mais negra negríssima	os mais negros negríssimos	as mais negras negríssimas
augmentative	negrão	negrona	negrões	negronas
diminutive	negrinho	negrinha	negrinhos	negrinhas

Derived terms

• negão
• nego
• negreiro
• negroide
• negrume
• neguinho

 

Related terms

• negritude
• nigrescente
• nigro-

 

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin nigrum, accusative of niger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈneɡɾo/, [ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ne‧gro

Noun

negro m (plural negros)

1. black (the color perceived in the absence of light)

   Antonym: blanco

2. a black person
3. ghost writer
   • 2016 April 18, “Mario Vaquerizo, fan del 15M y de Federico Jiménez Losantos”, in El Confidencial‎^[4]:

     Es improbable, casi imposible, que haya sido escrito por un negro, al estilo de Belén Esteban, David Beckham y Ana Rosa Quintana.

     It's improbable, almost impossible, that it was written by a ghost writer, in the style of Belén Esteban, David Beckham and Ana Rosa Quintana.

Adjective

negro (feminine negra, masculine plural negros, feminine plural negras)

1. black (absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless)

   Antonym: blanco

2. black (of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin)
3. dirty
4. sad
5. clandestine
6. (Spain) angry
7. (Argentina) ( mi ~) my darling, my honey

Derived terms

• negrillo, negrito (diminutives)

• aceituna negra
• agua negra
• aguilucho negro
• agujero negro
• albinegro
• arroz negro
• beleño negro
• beso negro
• bestia negra
• bilis negra
• buitre negro
• caja negra
• carinegro
• carpintero negro
• cigüeña negra
• cine negro
• cisne negro
• colinegro
• cuerpo negro
• dejar negro
• dinero negro
• enana negra
• en blanco y negro
• en negro
• gaviotín negro
• grosella negra
• hoyo negro
• humor negro
• Leyenda Negra
• lista negra
• luz negra
• magia negra
• maíz negro
• mano negra
• marea negra
• mar Negra
• mercado negro
• Montenegro
• negro como un zapato
• negro de la uña
• negro sobre blanco
• novela negra
• oro negro
• oso negro
• oveja negra
• pantera negra
• perdiz negra
• peste negra
• pimienta negra
• pito negro
• poner negro
• pozo negro
• punto negro
• relleno negro
• renegrido
• rinoceronte negro
• sacar lo que el negro del sermón
• sopa negra
• verlo todo negro
• viuda negra
• zapote negro

 

Further reading

• “negro” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

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Venetian

Etymology

From Latin niger.

Adjective

negro

1. black