negro

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See also: Negro, négro, and ñegro

English[edit]

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

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese negro (“black”), from Latin nigrum, masculine accusative case of niger (“black”), of uncertain origin[1], but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- (“bare; night”).[2] Doublet of noir.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

negro (not comparable)

  1. (dated, offensive) Relating to a 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[edit]

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.[3]

See also discussion at Wikipedia.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

negro (plural negroes or negros)

  1. (dated, now offensive) 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 […]
    • 2003, Benjamin Hawkins, ‎Howard Thomas Foster, The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796–1810 (page 259)
      There were two negros who were guilty of thieving; he went and had them both shot, and gave notice that he would put all to death who kept disturbing the property of the white people, and kept confusion in their land.
    • 2010, Ryan Acheson, Chalk (page 68)
      His parents had always said that the area he grew up in had been a nice place to live before 'those Negros invaded'.

Synonyms[edit]

(noun):

(adjective and noun):

Hypernyms[edit]

(noun):

Hyponyms[edit]

(adjective and noun):

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Negro — see Negro

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd edition, Boston (Mass.): Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN
  3. ^ Palmer, Brian (2010-01-11), “When Did the Word Negro Become Taboo?”, in Slate‎[2], Washington, DC: The Slate Group: “The turning point came when Stokely Carmichael coined the phrase black power at a 1966 rally in Mississippi.”

Anagrams[edit]

Aragonese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Akin to Spanish negro, from Latin niger.

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. black (color)

References[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈneɡɾo/, [ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo]

Adjective[edit]

negro

  1. neuter of negru

Cebuano[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Spanish negro.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

negro (feminine negra)

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

Esperanto[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

Galician[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

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

  1. black (colour)
  2. black person

Usage notes[edit]

This last usage is, a priori, not pejorative; still, periphrases as persoa de cor are usually preferred in formal context, if needed at all

See also[edit]

Colors in Galician · cores (layout · text)
     branco      gris      negro
             vermello; carmín              laranxa; castaño, marrón              amarelo; crema
             verde lima              verde              menta; verde escuro
             ciano; azul verdoso              cerúleo              azul
             violeta; anil              maxenta; púrpura              rosa

References[edit]

  • “negro” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
  • “negr” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
  • “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.

Interlingua[edit]

Noun[edit]

negro (plural negros)

  1. black person, usually black man, negro

Related terms[edit]

Italian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin nigrum, accusative form of niger.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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

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

Noun[edit]

negro m (plural negri)

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

Related terms[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Ladino[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

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[edit]

Old Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin nigrum, accusative of niger.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. black
    Synonym: preto

Descendants[edit]

  • Galician: negro
  • Portuguese: negro

See also[edit]

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

Portuguese[edit]

buraco negro
homem negro

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Hyphenation: ne‧gro

Noun[edit]

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

  1. black (the darkest colour)
    Synonym: preto
  2. black; negro (dark-skinned person)
    Synonyms: (formal) afrodescendente, preto, (Brazil, colloquial) nego

Adjective[edit]

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
  3. (literary) dark (associated with evil)
    Cavaleiro negro. ― Dark knight.

Inflection[edit]

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[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Latin nigrum.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈneɡɾo/, [ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo]
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: ne‧gro

Noun[edit]

negro m (plural negros)

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

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

  1. a black person
  2. 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[edit]

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
    está negro
    he's in a rage
  7. (Latin America) ( mi ~) my darling, my honey

Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Colors in Spanish · colores (layout · text)
     blanco      gris      negro
             rojo; carmín, carmesí              naranja, anaranjado; marrón              amarillo; crema
             lima              verde              menta
             cian, turquesa; azul-petróleo              celeste              azul
             violeta; añil, índigo              magenta; morado, púrpura              rosa

Further reading[edit]

Tagalog[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Spanish negro

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA(key): /ˈneɡɾo/

Adjective[edit]

negro

  1. (colloquial, usually derogatory, potentially offensive) having dark pigmentation of the skin

Noun[edit]

negro (feminine negra)

  1. (colloquial, usually derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) one with dark pigmentation of the skin, such as those of African descent with sub-Saharan origin

Usage notes[edit]

When heard by African Americans visiting or living in the Philippines, the term is often considered offensive due to its derogatory sense in English and associations with the term, nigger, in English, although the term is not used very often due to the meager and sparse population of those of sub-Saharan origin in the Philippines.

Related terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Venetian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin niger.

Adjective[edit]

negro

  1. black
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