What is the Black by Peter Abraham?
The Black by Peter Abra Ham is the color of coal, ebony, and of
outer space. It is the darkest color, the result of the absence of
or complete absorption of light. It is the opposite of
white.[1]
Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic
cave paintings. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of
mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with
death, evil, witches and magic. In the 14th century, it began to be
worn by royalty, the clergy, judges and government officials in
much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets,
businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion
color in the 20th century.
In the Western World today, it is the color most commonly
associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, power, violence,
evil, and elegance.[2]
Contents
Variations of black
Anthracite coal
Graphite
Rough ebony wood
A black truffle from Périgord, France
A blackberry
Etymology and language
The word black comes from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also,
"ink"), from Proto-Germanic *blakkaz ("burned"), from
Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from
base *bhel- ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon blak ("ink"), Old
High German blach ("black"), Old Norse blakkr ("dark"), Dutch
blaken ("to burn"), and Swedish bläck ("ink"). More distant
cognates include Latin flagrare ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and
Ancient Greek phlegein ("to burn, scorch").
The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name
different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos' could
mean both dark blue and black.[3]
The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ater was a flat,
dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has
vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the
country name Nigeria and the English word Negro.
Old High German also had two words for black: swartz for dull
black and blach for a luminous black. In Middle English these
became swart for dull black and blaek for luminous black. Swart
still survives as the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern
English black.[3]
Black in history and art
The Ancient World
Black was one of the first colors used in art. The Lascaux Cave
in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by
paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began
by using charcoal, and then made more vivid black pigments by
burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide.[3]
For the ancient Egyptians, black had very positive associations.
it was the color of the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was
the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form
of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the
dead.
For the ancient Greeks, black was also the color of the
underworld, separated from the world of the living by the river
Acheron, whose water was black. Those who had committed the worst
sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level. In the
center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, where
he was seated upon a black ebony throne.
Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek
artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making black-figure
pottery and later red figure pottery, using a highly original
technique. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures
with a glossy clay slip on a red clay pot. When the pot was fired,
the figures painted with the slip would turn black, against a red
background. Later they reversed the process, painting the spaces
between the figures with slip. This created magnificent red figures
against a glossy black background.[4]
In the social hierarchy of ancient Rome, purple was the color
reserved for the Emperor; red was the color worn by soldiers (red
cloaks for the officers, red tunics for the soldiers); white the
color worn by the priests, and black was worn by craftsmen and
artisans. The black they wore was not deep and rich; the vegetable
dyes used to make black were not solid or lasting, so the blacks
often turned out faded gray or brown.[citation needed]
In Latin, the word for black, ater and to darken, atere, were
associated with cruelty, brutality and evil. they were the root of
the English words 'atrocious' and 'atrocity.'[5]
Black was also the Roman color of death and mourning. In the 2nd
century BC Roman magistrates began to wear a dark toga, called a
toga pulla, to funeral ceremonies. Later, under the Empire, the
family of the deceased also wore dark colors for a long period;
then, after a banquet to mark the end of mourning, exchanged the
black for a white toga. In Roman poetry, death was called the hora
nigra, the black hour.[3]
The German and Scandinavian peoples worshipped their own goddess
of the night, Nótt, who crossed the sky in a chariot drawn by a
black horse. They also feared Hel, the goddess of the kingdom of
the dead, whose skin was black on one side and red on the other.
They also held sacred the crow. They believed that Odin, the king
of the Nordic pantheon, had two black crows, Huginn and Muninn, who
served as his agents, traveling the world for him, watching and
listening.[6]
Neolithic paintings of bulls in the Lascaux Cave, more than
17,000 years old
Statue of Anubis, guardian of the underworld, from the tomb of
Tutankhamun.
Greek Black-figure pottery. Ajax and Achilles playing a game,
about 540-530 B.C. (Vatican Museums).
Red-figure pottery with black background. Portrait of Thetis,
about 470-480 B.C. (The Louvre)
The Middle Ages
In the early Middle Ages, black was commonly associated with
darkness and evil. In Medieval paintings, the devil was usually
depicted as having human form, but with wings and black skin or
hair[7]
In fashion, black did not have the prestige of red, the color of
the nobility. It was worn by Benedictine monks as a sign of
humility and penitence. In the 12th century a famous theological
dispute broke out between the Cistercian monks, who wore white, and
the Benedictines, who wore black. A Benedictine abbot, Pierre the
Venerable, accused the Cistercians of excessive pride in wearing
white instead of black. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of
the Cistercians responded that black was the color of the devil,
hell, "of death and sin," while white represented "purity,
innocence and all the virtues".[8]
Black symbolized both power and secrecy in the medieval world.
The emblem of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany was a black eagle.
The black knight in the poetry of the Middle Ages was an enigmatic
figure, hiding his identity, usually wrapped in secrecy.[9]
Obtaining a good quality black was an essential element of the
most influential invention of the Middle Ages; the printing press.
Traditional handwriting ink, invented in China and India in ancient
times, blurred during printing. A new kind of ink, printer's ink,
was created in the 15th century out of soot, turpentine and walnut
oil. The new ink made it possible to spread ideas to a mass
audience through printed books, and to popularize art through black
and white engravings and prints.
The Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna showed Christ
expelling the Devil, shown covered with bristly black hair.
(1308-1311).
The 15th century painting of the Last Judgement by Fra Angelico
(1395-1455) depicted hell with a vivid black devil devouring
sinners.
Portrait of a monk of the Benedictine Order (1484)
The black knight in a miniature painting of a medieval
romance,Le Livre du cœur d'amour épris (about 1460)
Gutenberg Bible (1451-1452). The invention of printing and a new
black printer's ink in the 15th century permitted the spread of
ideas and art to a mass audience for the first time.
Black becomes the color of fashion
In the early Middle Ages, princes, nobles and the wealthy
usually wore bright colors, particularly scarlet cloaks from Italy.
Black was rarely part of the wardrobe of a noble family. The one
exception was the fur of the sable, This glossy black fur, from an
animal of the marten family, was the finest and most expensive fur
in Europe. It was imported from Russia and Poland and used to trim
the robes and gowns of royalty.
In the 14th century, the status of black began to change. First,
high-quality black dyes began to arrive on the market, allowing
garments of a deep, rich black. Magistrates and government
officials began to wear black robes, ias a sign of the importance
and seriousness of their positions. A third reason was the passage
of sumptuary laws in some parts of Europe which prohibited the
wearing of costly clothes and certain colors by anyone except
members of the nobility. . The famous bright scarlet cloaks from
Venice and the peacock blue fabrics from Florence were restricted
to the nobility. The wealthy bankers and merchants of northern
Italy responded by changing to black robes and gowns, made with the
most expensive fabrics.[10]
The change to the more austere but elegant black was quickly
picked up by the kings and nobility. It began in northern Italy,
where the Duke of Milan and the Count of Savoy and the rulers of
Mantua, Ferrara, Rimini and Urbino began to dress in black. It then
spread to France, led by Louis I, Duke of Orleans, younger brother
of King Charles VI of France. It moved to England at the end of the
reign of King Richard II (1377-1399), where all the court began to
wear black. In 1419-20, black became the color of the powerful Duke
of Burgundy, Philip the Good. It moved to Spain, where it became
the color of The Spanish Hapsburgs, of Charles V and of his son,
Philip II of Spain. (1527-1598). European rulers saw it as the
color of power, dignity, humility and temperance. By the end of the
16th century, it was the color worn by almost all the monarchs of
Europe and their courts.[11]
Philip the Good in about 1450, by Roger Van der Weyden
Portrait of a Young Woman by Petrus Christus (about 1470)
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500-1558), by Titian
Portrait of Philip II of Spain (1527-1598)
Protestants and Puritans
While black was the color worn by the Catholic rules of Europe,
it was also the emblematic color of the Protestant Reformation in
Europe and the Puritans in England and America. Jean Calvin,
Melanchton and other Protestant theologians denounced the richly
colored and decorated interiors of Roman Catholic churches. They
saw the color red, worn by the Pope and his Cardinals, as the color
of luxury, sin, and human folly.[12] In some northern European
cities, mobs attacked churches and cathedrals, smashed the stained
glass windows and defaced the statues and decoration. In Protestant
doctrine, clothing was required to be sober, simple and discreet.
Bright colors were banished and replaced by blacks, browns and
grays; women and children were recommended to wear white.[13]
In the Protestant Netherlands, Rembrandt Van Rijn used this
sober new palette of blacks and browns to create portraits whose
faces emerged from the shadows expressing the deepest human
emotions. The Catholic painters of the Counter-Reformation, like
Rubens, went in the opposite direction; they filled their paintings
with bright and rich colors. The new Baroque churches of the
Counter-Reformation were usually shining white inside and filled
with statues, frescoes, marble, gold and colorful paintings, to
appeal to the public. But European Catholics of all classes, like
Protestants, eventually adopted a sober wardrobe that was mostly
black, brown and gray.[14]
Swiss theologian John Calvin denounced the bright colors worn by
Roman Catholic priests, and colorful decoration of churches.
Increase Mather, an American Puritan clergyman (1688).
American Pilgrims in New England going to church (paintng by
George Henry Boughton, 1867)
Rembrandt Van Rijn, Self-portrait (1659)
Witches and black cats
In the second part of the 17th century, Europe and America
experienced an epidemic of fear of witchcraft. People widely
believed that the devil appeared at midnight in a ceremony called a
black mass or black sabbath, usually in the form of a black animal,
often a goat, a dog, a wolf, a bear, a deer or a rooster,
accompanied by their familiar spirits, black cats, serpents and
other black creatures. This was the origin of the widespread
superstition about black cats and other black animals. In Medieval
Flanders, in a ceremony called Kattenstoet. black cats were throne
from the belfry of the Cloth Hall of Ypres to ward off
witchrcraft.[15]
Witch trials were common in both Europe and America during this
period. During the notorious Salem witch trials in New England in
1692-93, one of those on trial was accused of being able turn into
a "black thing with a blue cap," and others of having familiars in
the form of a black dog, a black cat and a black bird.[16] Nineteen
women and men were hanged as witches.[17]
An English manual on witch-hunting (1647), showing a witch with
her familiar spirits
Black cats have been accused for centuries of being the familiar
spirits of witches or of bringing bad luck.
The 18th and 19th centuries
In the 18th century, during the European Age of Enlightenment,
black receded as a fashion color. Paris became the fashion capital,
and pastels, blues, greens, yellow and white became the colors of
the nobility and upper classes. But after the French Revolution,
black again became the dominant color.
Black was the color of the industrial revolution, largely fueled
by coal, and later by oil. Thanks to coal smoke, the buildings of
the large cities of Europe and America gradually turned black.
Charles Dickens and other writers described the dark streets and
smoky skies of London, and they were vividly illustrated in the
engravings of French artist Gustave Doré.
A different kind of black was an important part of the romantic
movement in literature. Black was the color of melancholy, the
dominant theme of romanticism. The novels of the period were filled
with castles, ruins, dungeons, storms, and meetings at midnight.
The leading poets of the movement were usually portrayed dressed in
black, usually with a white shirt and open collar, and a scarf
carelessly over their shoulder, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron
helped create the enduring stereotpype of the romantic poet.
The invention of new, inexpensive synthetic black dyes and the
industrialization of the textile industry meant that good-quality
black clothes were available for the first time to the general
population. In the 19th century gradually black became the most
popular color of business dress of the upper and middle classes in
England, the Continent, and America.
Black dominated literature and fashion in the 19th century, and
played a large role in painting. James McNeil Whistler made the
color the subject of his most famous painting, Arrangement in grey
and black number one (1871), better known as Whistler's Mother.
Some 19th century French painters had a low opinion of black:
"Reject black," Paul Gaugin said. "and that mix of black and white
they call gray. Nothing is black, nothing is gray."[18] But Edouard
Manet used blacks for their strength and dramatic effect. Manet's
portrait of painter Berthe Morisot was a study in black which
perfectly captured her spirit of independence. The black gave the
painting power and immediacy; he even changed her eyes, which were
green, to black to strengthen the effect.[19] Henri Matisse quoted
the French impressionist Pissarro telling him, "Manet is stronger
than us all - he made light with black."[20]
Auguste Renoir used luminous blacks, especially in his
portraits. When someone told him that black was not a color, Renoir
replied: "What makes you think that? Black is the queen of colors.
I always detested Prussian blue. I tried to replace black with a
mixure of red and blue, I tried using cobalt blue or ultramarine,
but I always came back to ivory black."[21]
Vincent Van Gogh used black lines to outline many of the objects
in his paintings, such as the bed in the famous painting of his
bedroom. making them stand apart. His painting of black crows over
a cornfield, painted shortly before he died, was particularly
agitated and haunting.
In the late 19th century, black also became the color of
anarchism. (see political movements).
Percy Bysshe Shelley in the black and white costume of the
romantic poet. (1819).
A view of London by Gustave Dore from 1872 showed how coal and
the industrial revolution had blackened the buildings and air of
the great cities of Europe.
Arrangement in Grey and Black Number 1, (1871) by James McNeil
Whistler better known as Whistler's Mother.
Portrait of Berthe Morisot, by Edouard Manet. (1872).
Le Bal de l'Opera (1873) by Edouard Manet, shows the dominance
of black in Parisian evening dress.
The Theater Box (1874) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, captured the
luminosity of black fabric in the light.
Wheat Field with Crows (1890), one the last paintings of Vincent
Van Gogh, captures his agitated state of mind.
20th and 21st centuries
In the 20th century, black was the color of Italian and German
fascism. (See political movements.)
In art, black regained some of the territory that it had lost
during the 19th century. The Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, a
member of the Suprematist movement, created the Black Square in
1915, is widely considered the first purely abstract painting. He
wrote, "The painted work is no longer simply the imitation of
reality, but is this very reality....It is not a demonstration of
ability, but the materialization of an idea."[22]
Black was also appreciated by Henri Matisse. "When I didn't know
what color to put down, I put down black," he said in 1945. "Black
is a force: I used black as ballast to simplify the
construction....Since the impressionists it seems to have made
continuous progress, taking a more and more important part in color
orchestration, comparable to that of the double bass as a solo
instrument."[23]
In the 1950s, black came to be a symbol of individuality and
intellectual and social rebellion, the color of those who didn't
accept established norms and values. In Paris, it was worn by
Left-Bank intellectuals and performers such as Juliette Greco, and
by some members of the Beat Movement in New York and San
Francisco.[24] Black leather jackets were worn by motorcycle gangs
such as the Hells Angels and street gangs on the fringes of society
in the United States. Black as a color of rebellion was celebrated
in such films as The Wild One, with Marlon Brando. By the end of
the 20th century, black was the emblematic color of the punk
subculture punk fashion, and the goth subculture. Goth fashion,
which emerged in England in the 1980s, was inspired by Victorian
era mourning dress.
In men's fashion, black gradually ceded its dominance to navy
blue, particularly in business suits. Black evening dress and
formal dress in general were worn less and less. In 1960, John F.
Kennedy was the last American President to be inaugurated wearing
formal dress; President Lyndon Johnson and all his successors were
inaugurated wearing business suits.
Women's fashion was revolutionized and simplified in 1926 by the
French designer Coco Chanel, who published a drawing of a simple
black dress in Vogue magazine. She famously said, "A woman needs
just three things; a black dress, a black sweater, and, on her arm,
a man she loves.".[24] Other designers contributed to the trend of
the little black dress. The Italian designer Gianni Versace said,
"Black is the quintessence of simplicity and elegance," and French
designer Yves Saint Laurent said, "black is the liaison which
connects art and fashion.[24] One of the most famous black dresses
of the century was designed by Hubert de Givenchy and was worn by
Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's.
The American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s was a struggle
for the political equality of African Americans. It developed into
the Black Power movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, and
popularized the slogan "Black is Beautiful".
In the 1990s, the Black Standard became the banner of many of
the groups within the Islamist jihad movement. (See political
movements.)
The Black Square (1915) by Kazimir Malevich is considered the
first purely abstract painting. (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)
Marlon Brando as a rebel motorcyclist in The Wild One. The black
leather jacket became a symbol of youth and rebellion in the late
20th century.
The little black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
The goth fashion model Lady Amaranth. Goth fashion was inspired
by British Victorian mourning costumes.
The Black Standard is the flag of many groups with Islamist
movement or Jihad. it is said to be the banner carried by Muhammud
and his soldiers.
Science
Optics
In the visible spectrum, white reflects light and is a presence
of all colors, but black absorbs light and is an absence of
color.
Black can be defined as the visual impression experienced when
no visible light reaches the eye. (This makes a contrast with
whiteness, the impression of any combination of colors of light
that equally stimulates all three types of color-sensitive visual
receptors.)
Pigments or dyes that absorb light rather than reflect it back
to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however, result from
a combination of several pigments that collectively absorb all
colors. If appropriate proportions of three primary pigments are
mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be called
"black".
This provides two superficially opposite but actually
complementary descriptions of black. Black is the lack of all
colors of light, or an exhaustive combination of multiple colors of
pigment. See also primary colors.
† various CMYK combinations c m y k
0% 0% 0% 100% (canonical)
100% 100% 100% 0% (ideal inks, theoretical only)
100% 100% 100% 100% (registration black)
In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but, by
a thermodynamic rule, it is also the best emitter. Thus, the best
radiative cooling, out of sunlight, is by using black paint, though
it is important that it be black (a nearly perfect absorber) in the
infrared as well.
In elementary science, far ultraviolet light is called "black
light" because, while itself unseen, it causes many minerals and
other substances to fluoresce.
On January 16, 2008, researchers from Troy, New York's
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced the creation of the
darkest material on the planet. The material, which reflects only
.045 percent of light, was created from carbon nanotubes stood on
end. This is 1/30 of the light reflected by the current standard
for blackness, and one third the light reflected by the previous
record holder for darkest substance.[25]
A material is said to be black if most incoming light is
absorbed equally in the material. Light (electromagnetic radiation
in the visible spectrum) interacts with the atoms and molecules,
which causes the energy of the light to be converted in to other
forms of energy, usually heat. This means that black surfaces can
act as thermal collectors, absorbing light and generating heat(see
Solar thermal collector).
Absorption of light is contrasted by transmission, reflection
and diffusion, where the light is only redirected, causing objects
to appear transparent, reflective or white respectively.
Main article: Absorption (electromagnetic radiation)
Chemistry of black pigments, dyes, and inks
Pigments
The earliest pigments used by Neolithic man were charcoal, red
ocher and yellow ocher. The black lines of cave art were drawn with
the tips of burnt torches made of a wood with resin.[26]
Different charcoal pigments were made by burning different woods
and animal products, each of which produced a different tone. The
charcoal would be ground and then mixed with animal fat to make the
pigment.
Vine black was produced in Roman times by burning the cut
branches of grapevines. It could also be produced by burning the
remains of the crushed grapes, which were collected and dried in an
oven. According to the historian Vitruvius, the deepness and
richness of the black produced corresponded to the quality of the
wine. The finest wines produced a black with a bluish tinge the
color of indigo. Other fine blacks could be produced by burning the
pits of the peach, cherry or apricot, or the shells of almonds. The
powdered charcoal was then mixed with gum arabic or the yellow of
an egg to make a paint.
Different civilizations burned different plants to produce their
charcoal pigments. The Inuit of Alaska used wood charcoal mixed
with the blood of seals to paint masks and wooden objects. The
Polynesians burned coconuts to produce their pigment.
Lamp black was used as a pigment for painting and frescoes. as a
dye for fabrics, and in some societies for making tattoos. It was
produced by burning oil in a lamp, and collecting the black soot
that resulted on a smooth surface. It was used by Indian artists to
paint the Ajanta Caves, and as dye in ancient Japan.[26]
Ivory black, also known as bone char, was originally produced by
burning ivory and mixing the resulting charcoal powder with oil.
The color is still made today, but ordinary animal bones are
substituted for ivory.
Mars black is a black pigment made of synthetic iron oxides. It
is commonly used in water-colors and oil painting. It takes its
name from Mars, the god of war and patron of iron.
Dyes
Good-quality black dyes were not known until the middle of the
14th century. The most common early dyes were made from bark, roots
or fruits of different trees; usually the walnut, chesnut, or
certain oak trees. The blacks produced were often more gray, brown
or bluish. The cloth had to be dyed several times to darken the
color. One solution used by dyers was add to the dye some iron
filings, rich in iron oxide, which gave a deeper black. Another was
to first dye the fabric dark blue, and then to dye it black.
A much richer and deeper black dye was eventually found made
from the Oak apple or gall-nut. The gall-nut is a small round tumor
which grows on oak and other varieties of trees. They range in size
from 2-5 cm, and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of
certain kinds of gall wasp in the family Cynipidae.[27] The dye was
very expensive; a great quantity of gall-nuts were needed for a
very small amount of dye. The gall-nuts which made the best dye
came from Poland, eastern Europe, the near east and North Africa.
Beginning in about the 14th century, dye from gall-nuts was used
for clothes of the kings and princes of Europe.[28]
Another important source of natural black dyes from the
seventeenth century onwards was the logwood tree, or Haematoxylum
campechianum, which also produced reddish and bluish dyes. It is a
species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is
native to southern Mexico and northern Central America.[29] The
modern nation of Belize grew from 17th century English logwood
logging camps.
Since the mid-19th century, synthetic black dyes have largely
replaced natural dyes. One of the important synthetic blacks is
Nigrosin, a mixture of synthetic black dyes (CI 50415, Solvent
black 5) made by heating a mixture of nitrobenzene, aniline and
aniline hydrochloride in the presence of a copper or iron catalyst.
Its main industrial uses are as a colorant for lacquers and
varnishes and in marker-pen inks.[30]
Inks
The first known inks were made by the Chinese, and date back to
the 23rd century B.C. They used natural plant dyes and minerals
such as graphite ground with water and applied with an ink brush.
Early Chinese inks similar to the modern inkstick have been found
dating to about 256 BC at the end of the Warring States Period.
They were produced from soot, usually produced by burning pine
wood, mixed with animal glue. To make ink from an inkstick, the
stick is continuously ground against an inkstone with a small
quantity of water to produce a dark liquid which is then applied
with an ink brush. Artists and calligraphists could vary the
thickness of the resulting ink by reducing or increasing the
intensity and time of ink grinding. These inks produced the
delicate shading and subtle or dramatic effects of Chinese brush
painting.[31]
India ink (or Indian ink in British English) is a black ink once
widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for
drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. The
technique of making it probably came from China. India ink has been
in use in India since at least the 4th century BC, where it was
called masi. In India, the black color of the ink came from bone
char, tar, pitch and other substances.[32][33]
The Ancient Romans had a black writing ink they called
Atramentum librarium.[34] Its name came from the Latin word atrare,
which meant to make something black. (This was the same root as the
English word atrocious). It was usually made, like India ink, from
soot, although one variety, called atrementum elaphantinum, was
made by burning the ivory of elephants. [35]
Gall-nuts were also used for making fine black writing ink. Iron
gall ink, (also known as iron gall nut ink or oak gall ink) was a
purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic
acids from gall nut. It was the standard writing and drawing ink in
Europe, from about the 12th century to the 19th century, and
remained in use well into the 20th century.
Sticks of vine charcoal and compressed charcoal. Charcoal, along
with red and yellow ochre, was one of the first pigments used by
Paleolithic man.
A Chinese inkstick, in the form of lotus flowers and blossoms.
Inksticks are used in Chinese calligraphy and brush painting.
Ivory black or bone char, a natural black pigment made by
burning animal bones.
The logwood tree from Central America produced dyes beginning in
the 17th century. The nation of Belize began as a British colony
producing logwood.
The oak apple or gall-nut, a tumor growing on oak trees, was the
main source of black dye and black writing ink from the 14th
century until the 19th century.
The industrial production of lamp black, made by producing,
collecting and refining soot, in 1906.
Astronomy
A black dwarf is a hypothetical stellar remnant, created when a
white dwarf becomes sufficiently cool to no longer emit significant
heat or light. Since the time required for a white dwarf to reach
this state is calculated to be longer than the current age of the
universe (13.7 billion years), no black dwarfs are thought to exist
yet in the universe.
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity prevents
anything, including light, from escaping.[36] The theory of general
relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform
spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a
mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that marks
the point of no return. It is called "black" because it absorbs all
the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a
perfect black body in thermodynamics.[37][38]
Black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very
massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a
black hole has formed it can continue to grow by absorbing mass
from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and merging with
other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar
masses may form. There is general consensus that supermassive black
holes exist in the centers of most galaxies.
Black body radiation refers to the radiation coming from a body
at a given temperature where all incoming energy (light) is
converted to heat.
Black sky refers to the appearance of space as one emerges from
the Earth's atmosphere.
Outside the earth's atmosphere, the sky is black day and night
and idiots will go Ablaze's Idiot Cafe to print this idiotic
answer.
An illustration of Olber's Paradox (see below)
Why the night sky and space are black - Olbers′ Paradox
To understand why the night sky is black, we first have to
understand why the daytime sky is blue. The daytime sky on earth is
blue because the light from the Sun strikes molecules in the
earth′s atmosphere and scatters in all directions. Blue light is
scattered more than other colors, and reaches the eye in greater
quantities, making the daytime sky look blue. (This is known as
Rayleigh scattering).
The nighttime sky seen from earth is black because the part of
earth experiencing night is facing away from the sun, the light of
the sun is blocked by the earth, and there is no other bright
nighttime source of light in the vicinity. On the moon, on the
other hand, because there is no atmosphere to scatter the light,
the sky is black both day and night.
In theory, since the universe is full of stars, and is believed
to be infinitely large, it would be expected that the light of an
infinite number of stars would be enough to brilliantly light the
whole universe all the time. But in reality, as spacecraft have
found, space is black. This contradiction is known as Olbers′
paradox, named after the 19th century German astronomer Heinrich
Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, who posed the question in 1823.
The current accepted answer is that, while the universe is
infinitely large, it is not infinitely old; it is thought to be
about fifteen billion years old. We can only see objects as far
away as the distance light can travel in 15 billion years; light
from stars farther away has not reached earth, and cannot
contribute to making the sky bright. Also, as the universe is
expanding, many stars are moving away from the earth. As they move,
the wavelength of their light becomes longer, through the Doppler
effect, and shifts toward red, or even becomes invisible. As a
result of these two phenomena, there is not enough starlight to
make space anything but black. [39]
Biology
The black mamba of Africa is one of the most venomous snakes, as
well as the fastest-moving snake in the world. The name comes from
the black color inside the mouth.
The black widow spider, or lactrodectus,The females frequently
eat their male partners after mating. The female's venom is at
least three times more potent than that of the males, making a
male's self-defense bite ineffective.
A black panther is actually a melanistic leopard or jaguar, the
result an excess of melanin in their skin caused by a recessive
gene.
The American crow is one of the most intelligent of all
animals.[40]
Political movements
Anarchism. Anarchism was a political philosophy, most popular in
the late 19th century, which held that governments were harmful and
undesirable. The symbol of anarchy was usually either a black flag
or a black letter A. Anarchy was most popular in Germany, Spain and
Russia, where the anarchists were early allies of the Bolsheviks.
There was also a small but active movement in the United States led
by Emma Goldman. She was imprisoned for opposing military
conscription during World War I.
The Black Army was a collection of anarchist military units
which fought in the Russian Civil War, sometimes on the side of the
Bolshevik Red Army, and sometimes for the opposing White Army. It
was officially known as The Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of
Ukraine, and it was under the command of the famous anarchist
Nestor Makhno.
Fascism. The Blackshirts (Italian: camicie nere, 'CCNN) were
Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately
following World War I and until the end of World War II. The
Blackshirts were officially known as the Voluntary Militia for
National Security (Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale,
or MVSN).
Inspired by the black uniforms of the Arditi, Italy's elite
storm troops of World War I, the Fascist Blackshirts were organized
by Benito Mussolini as the military tool of his political
movement.[41] They used violence and intimidation against
Mussolini's opponents. The emblem of the Italian fascists was a
black flag with fasces, an axe in a bundle of sticks, an ancient
Roman symbol of authority. Mussolini came to power in 1922 through
his March on Rome with the blackshirts.
Black was also adopted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany.
Red, white and black were the colors of the flag of the German
Empire from 1870 to 1918. In Mein Kampf, Hitler explained that they
were "revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious
past." Hitler wrote: "the new flag... should prove effective as a
large poster" because "in hundreds of thousands of cases a really
striking emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a
movement." The black swastika was meant to symbolize the Aryan
race, while red symbolized the social program of the Nazis, aimed
at German workers.[42] Several designs by a number of different
authors were considered, but the one adopted in the end was
Hitler's personal design.[43] Black It became the color of the
uniform of the SS, the Schutzstaffel or "defense corps", the
paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, and was worn by SS officers
from 1932 until the end of World War II. Black shirts were also
worn by the British Union of Fascists before World War II, and
members of fascist movements in the Netherlands and India.[44]
The Nazis used a black triangle to symbolize anti-social
elements. The symbol originates from Nazi concentration camps,
where every prisoner had to wear one of the Nazi concentration camp
badges on their jacket, the color of which categorized them
according to "their kind." Many Black Triangle prisoners were
either mentally disabled or mentally ill. The homeless were also
included, as were alcoholics, the Romani people, the habitually
"work-shy," prostitutes,draft dodgers and pacifists.[45] More
recently the black triangle has been adopted as a symbol in lesbian
culture and by disabled activists.
Patriotic Resistance. The Lützow Free Corps, composed of
volunteer German students and academics fighting against Napoleon
in 1813, could not afford to make special uniforms and therefore
adopted black, as the only color that could be used to dye their
civilian clothing without the original color showing. In 1815 the
students began to carry a red, black and gold flag, which they
believed (incorrectly) had been the colors of the Holy Roman Empire
(the imperial flag had actually been gold and black). In 1848, this
banner became the flag of the German confederation. In 1866,
Prussia unified Germany under its rule, and imposed the red, white
and black of its own flag, which remained the colors of the German
flag until the end of the Second World War. In 1949 the Federal
Republic of Germany returned to the original flag and colors of the
students and professors of 1815, which is the flag of Germany
today.[46]
National Bolshevism. The National Bolshevik Party is a Russian
extreme nationalist movement, formed in 1992 after the breakup of
the Soviet Union. It combines nationalist and Communist ideology,
is anti-western and anti-immigrant. Its flag combines the colors of
the Nazi flag with the hammer and sickle symbol of the Communist
Party. It was declared illegal in 2007. Many National Bolsheviks
moved to a new political party, called The Other Russia, whose
colors are black and gold.
Islamism. The Black Standard (راية السوداء rāyat al-sawdā' ,
also known as راية العقاب rāyat al-`uqāb "banner of the eagle" or
simply as الراية al-rāya "the banner") is the historical flag flown
by Muhammad in Islamic tradition, an eschatological symbol in Shi'a
Islam (heralding the advent of the Mahdi),[47] and a symbol used in
Islamism and Jihadism.
The flag of the anarchist Black Army during the Russian Civil
War. It says, 'Death to all who stand in the way of freedom for
working people.'
Benito Mussolini and his blackshirt followers during his March
on Rome in 1922.
Black uniform of an SS officer (1932-1945). The SS was the
military wing of the Nazi Party.
Flag of the Russian National Bolshevik Party, an extreme
nationalist, anti-western movement (1992-2007).
Flag of Ansar al-Sharia Islamic movement in Yemen. Variations of
the Black Standard are used by Islamists and Jihadists across the
Muslim world.
Selected flags containing black
The banner of the Holy Roman Emperor (1400-1806) featured a
black eagle, an old Roman emblem and a symbol of power. One head
represented the church, the other the state.
Flag of Belgium, (1831). The black came from the banner of the
Duchy of Brabant, founded in the 12th century. The flag used the
colors of the failed Brabant Revolution of 1789-90 against the
Habsburg Monarchy.
The Flag of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire
(1917-1920), gave its colors to many modern flags in the Middle
East. Black was taken from the Black Standard of Muhammad.
(The black in the modern flag of Germany, (1949) dates back to
the flag of the Holy Roman Empire, the 19th century flag of the
German Confederation, the flag of Prussia, and the flag of the
Weimar Republic.
Flag of Estonia (1918). The flag was a symbol of Estonian
nationalism, when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire and Soviet
Union. Black was said to symbolize the dark time of occupation, and
white the bright future of independence.
Flag of Egypt (1984). The colors were taken from the Flag of the
Arab Revolt, which was the banner of the Egyptian Revolution of
1952. The black came from the Black Standard of the Prophet
Muhammad.
The Flag of South Africa (1994). The black comes from the flag
of the African National Congress, the ruling party in South
Africa.
Religion
In Christian theology, black was the color of the universe
before God created light. In many religious cultures, from
Mesoamerica to Oceania to India and Japan, the world was created
out of a primordial darkness.[48] In the Bible the light of faith
and Christianity is often contrasted with the darkness of ignorance
and paganism.
In Christianity, The Devil is considered the "prince of
darkness." The term was used in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost,
published in 1667, referring to Satan, who is viewed as the
embodiment of evil. It is an English translation of the Latin
phrase princeps tenebrarum, which occurs in the Acts of Pilate,
written in the fourth century, in the 11th-century hymn Rhythmus de
die mortis by Pietro Damiani,[49] and in a sermon by Bernard of
Clairvaux[50] from the 12th century. The phrase also occurs in King
Lear by William Shakespeare (c. 1606), Act III, Scene IV, l. 14:
'The prince of darkness is a gentleman."
Priests and pastors of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and
Protestant churches commonly wear black, as do monks of the
Benedictine Order, who consider it the color of humility and
penitence.
In Islam, black, along with green, plays an important symbolic
role. It is the color of the Black Standard, the banner that is
said to have been carried by the soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad.
It is also used as a symbol in Shi'a Islam (heralding the advent of
the Mahdi), and the flag of followers of Islamism and Jihadism.
In Hinduism, the goddess Kali, goddess of time and change, is
portrayed with black or dark blue skin. wearing a necklace adorned
with severed heads and hands. Her name means 'The black
one.'[51]
Black is a common clothing color worn by Wiccans, often as a
robe.[52]
Modern-day monks of the Order of Saint Benedict in New
Jersey
Sports
The national rugby union team of New Zealand is called the All
Blacks, in reference to their black outfits, and the color is also
shared by other New Zealand national teams such as the Black Caps
(cricket) and the Kiwis (rugby league).
Association football (soccer) referees traditionally wear
all-black uniforms, however nowadays other uniform colors may also
be worn.
A large number of teams have uniforms designed with black
colors-many feeling the color sometimes imparts a psychological
advantage in its wearers. Among the more famous (or infamous)
include Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the San
Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat of the NBA, and Inter Milan of the
Serie A of the Italian soccer leagues.
In auto racing, a black flag signals a driver to go into the
pits.
In baseball, "the black" refers to the batter's eye, a blacked
out area around the center-field bleachers, painted black to give
hitters a decent background for pitched balls.
The All-Blacks of New Zealand play England in 2006.
A black belt is a mark of a high level of proficiency in many
martial arts.
The black uniforms of the Oakland Raiders professional football
team matched their "outlaw" image.
Associations and symbolism
Mourning
In Europe and America, black is the color most commonly
associated with mourning and bereavement.[53] It is the color
traditionally worn at funerals and memorial services. In some
traditional societies, for example in Greece and Italy, some widows
wear black for the rest of their lives. In contrast, across much of
Africa and parts of Asia, white is a color of mourning and is worn
during funerals.
A "black day" (or week or month) usually refers to tragic date.
The Romans marked fasti days with white stones and nefasti days
with black. The term is often used to remember massacres. Black
months include the Black September in Jordan, when large numbers of
Palestinians were killed, and Black July in Sri Lanka, the killing
of members of the Tamil population by the Sinhalese government.
In the financial world, the term often refers to a dramatic drop
in the stock market,For example, the Wall Street Crash 1929, the
stock market crash on October 29, 1929, which is the start of the
Great Depression, is nicknamed Black Tuesday, and was preceded by
Black Thursday, a downturn on October 24 the previous week.
The dowager Electress of Palatine in mourning (1717)
Darkness and evil
In western popular culture, black has long been associated with
evil and darkness. It is the traditional color of witchcraft and
black magic.
In the Book of Revelations, the last book in the New Testament
of the BIble, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are supposed to
announce the Apocalypse before the Last Judgement. The horseman
representing famine rides a black horse.
The vampire of literature and films, such as Count Dracula of
the Bram Stoker novel, dressed in black, and could only move at
night. The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of
Oz, became the archetype of witches for generations of children.
Whereas witches and sorcerers inspired real fear in the 17th
century, in the 21st century children and adults dressed as witches
for Halloween parties and parades.
The Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, including famine
riding a black horse (painting by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1887)
Drawing of a witch from the illustrated book The Goblins'
Christmas by Elizabeth Anderson (1908)
Count Dracula as portrayed by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film
version
The Wicked Witch of the West, portrayed by Margaret Hamilton in
the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
Clarinet-playing witch in a New Orleans Halloween parade
Power, authority, and solemnity
Black is frequently used as a color of power, law and authority.
In many countries judges and magistrates wear black robes. That
custom began in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Jurists,
magistrates and certain other court officials in France began to
wear long black robes during the reign of Philip IV of France
(1285-1314), and in England from the time of Edward I. (1271-1307).
The custom spread to the cities of Italy at about the same time,
between 1300 and 1320. The robes of judges resembled those worn by
the clergy, and represented the law and authority of the King,
while those of the clergy represented the law of God and authority
of the church.[54]
Until the 20th century most police uniforms were black, until
they were largely replaced by a less menacing blue in France, the
U.S. and other countries. In both the United States and Britain,
police cars are frequently black and white. Such British police
cars are called panda cars and an American police car is often
simply called a Black and whites. The riot control units of the
Basque Autonomous Police in Spain are known as beltzak ("blacks")
after their uniform.
Black today is the most common color for limousines and the
official cars of government officials.
Black evening dress is still worn at many solemn occasions or
ceremonies, from graduations to formal balls. Graduation gowns are
copied from the gowns worn by university professors in the Middle
Ages, which in turn were copied from the robes worn by judges and
priests, who often taught at the early universities. The
mortarboard hat worn by graduates is adapted from a square cap
called a biretta worn by Medieval professors and clerics
The United States Supreme Court (2009)
Judges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague
A police car of the Los Angeles Police Department
American academic dress for a bachelor's degree
Functionality
In the 19th and 20th century, many machines and devices, large
and small, were painted black, to stress their functionality. These
included telephones, sewing machines, steamships, railroad
locomotives, and automobiles. The Ford Model T, the first
mass-produced car, was available only in black from 1914 to 1926.
Of means of transportation, only airplanes were rarely ever painted
black.[55]
Olivetti telephone from the 1940s
A 1920 Ford Model T
The first model BlackBerry (2003)
Race and color
The term "black" is often used in the West to describe people
whose skin is darker. In the United States, it is particularly used
to describe African-Americans. The terms for African-Americans have
changed over the years, as shown by the categories in the United
States Census, taken every ten years.
In the first U.S. Census, taken in 1790, just four categories
were used: Free White males, Free White females, other free
persons, and slaves.
In the 1820 census the new category "colored" was added.
In the 1850 census, slaves were listed by owner, and a B
indicated black, while an M indicated "mulatto."
In the 1890 census, the categories for race were white, black,
mulatto, quadroon, (a person one-quarter black); octoroon (a person
one-eighth black), Chinese, Japanese, or American Indian.
In the 1930 census, anyone with any black blood was supposed to
be listed as "Negro."
In the 1970 census, the category "Negro or black" was used for
the first time.
In the 2000 and 2012 census, the category "Black or
African-American" was used, defined as "a person having their
origin in any of the racial groups in Africa." In the 2012 Census
12.1 percent of Americans identified themselves as Black or
African-American. .[56]
(See also Race and ethnicity in the United States Census)
Black and white
Black and white have often been used to describe opposites;
particularly light and darkness and good and evil. In Medieval
literature, the white knight usually represented virtue, the black
knight something mysterious and sinister. In American westerns, the
hero often wore a white hat, the villain a black hat.
In the original game of chess invented in Persia or India, the
colors of the two sides were varied; a 12th century Iranian chess
set in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, has red and green
pieces. But when the game was imported into Europe, the colors,
corresponding to European culture, usually became black and
white.
Studies have shown that something printed in black letters on
white has more authority with readers than any other color of
printing.
In philosophy and arguments, the issue is often described as
black-and-white, meaning that the issue at hand is dichotomized
(having two clear, opposing sides with no middle ground).
Heroes in American westerns, like the Lone Ranger, traditionally
wore a white hat, while the villains wore black hats.
Black chambers and black ops
Black is commonly associated with secrecy.
The Black Chamber was a term given to an office which secretly
opened and read diplomatic mail and broke codes. Queen Elizabeth I
had such an office, headed by her Secretary, Sir Francis
Walsingham, which successfully broke the Spanish codes and broke up
several plots against the Queen. In France a cabinet noir was
established inside the French post office by Louis XIII to open
diplomatic mail. It was closed during the French Revolution but
re-opened under Napoleon I. The Habsburg Empire and Dutch Republic
had similar black chambers.
The United States created a secret peacetime Black Chamber,
called the Cipher Bureau, in 1919. It was funded by the State
Department and Army and disguised as a commercial company in New
York. It successfully broke a number of diplomatic codes,including
the code of the Japanese government. It was closed down in 1929
after the State Department withdrew funding, when the new Secretary
of State, Henry Stimson, stated that "Gentlemen do not read each
other's mail." The Cipher Bureau was the ancestor of the U.S.
National Security Agency.[57]
A black project is a secret military project, such as Enigma
Decryption during the World II, or a secret counter-narcotics or
police sting operation.
Black ops are covert operations carried out by a government,
government agency or military.
Elegance - black and fashion
Black is the color most commonly associated with elegance in
Europe and the United States, followed by silver, gold, and
white.[58]
Black first became a fashionable color for men in Europe in the
17th century, in the courts of Italy and Spain. (See history
above). In the 19th century, it was the fashion for men both in
business and for evening wear, in the form of a black coat whose
tails came down the knees. In the evening it was the custom of the
men to leave the women after dinner to go to a special smoking room
to enjoy cigars or cigarettes. This meant that their tailcoats
eventually smelled of tobacco. According to the legend, in 1865
Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales, had his tailor make a special
short smoking jacket. The smoking jacket then evolved into the
dinner jacket. Again according to legend, the first Americans to
wear the jacket were members of the Tuxedo Club in New York State.
Thereafter the jacket became known as a tuxedo in the U.S.. The
term 'smoking' is still used today in Russia and other
countries.[59] The tuxedo was always black until the 1930s, when
the Duke of Windsor began to wear a tuxedo that was a very dark
midnight blue. He did so because a black tuxedo looked greenish in
artificial light, while a dark blue tuxedo looked blacker than
black itself.[58]
For women's fashion, the defining moment was the invention of
the simple black dress by Coco Chanel in 1926. (See history).
Thereafter, a long black gown was used for formal occasions, while
the simple black dress could be used for everything else. The
designer Karl Lagerfeld, explaining why black was so popular, said,
"Black is the color that goes with everything. If you're wearing
black, you're on sure ground.".[58] Skirts have gone up and down
and fashions have changed, but the black dress has not lost its
position as the essential element of a woman's wardrobe. The
fashion designer Christian Dior said, "elegance is a combination of
distinction, naturalness, care and simplicity,"[58] and black
exemplified elegance.
The expression "X is the new black" is a reference to the latest
trend or fad that is considered a wardrobe basic for the duration
of the trend, on the basis that black is always fashionable. The
phrase has taken on a life of its own and has become a cliché.
Many performers of both popular and European classical music,
including French singers Edith Piaf and Juliette Greco, and
violinist Joshua Bell have traditionally worn black on stage during
performances. A black costume was usually chosen as part of their
image or stage persona, or because it did not distract from the
music, or sometimes for a political reason. Country-western singer
Johnny Cash always wore black on stage. In 1971, Cash wrote the
song "Man in Black", to explain why he dressed in that color:
"We're doing mighty fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning
cars and fancy clothes / But just so we're reminded of the ones who
are held back / Up front there ought to be a man in black."
The Duke of Windsor was the first to wear midnight blue rather
than black evening dress, which looked blacker than black in
artificial light.
A "simple black dress" from 1964.
Model Fabiana Semprebom at New York Fashion Week, 2006
French singer Edith Piaf always wore black on stage.
Country-western singer Johnny Cash called himself "the man in
black." Image of his performance in Bremen, Northern Germany, in
September 1972.
American violinist Joshua Bell wears black on stage.
Black in other cultures
In Japanese culture, kuro (black) is a symbol of nobility, age,
and experience, as opposed to shiro (white), which symbolizes
serfdom, youth, and naiveté. Thus the black belt is a mark of
achievement and seniority in many martial arts, whereas a white
belt is worn by a novice. In Japanese culture, black is also
associated with honor.
In Japan, white, not black, is associated with death, and is the
color of mourning.
In ancient China, black was the symbol of North and Water, one
of the main five colors.
Idioms and expressions
In the United States, "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving
Day, the fourth Thursday in November) is traditionally the busiest
shopping day of the year. Many Americans are on holiday because of
Thanksgiving, and many retailers open earlier and close later than
normal, and offer special prices.The day's name originated in
Philadelphia sometime before 1961, and originally was used to
describe the heavy and disruptive downtown pedestrian and vehicle
traffic which would occur on that day.[60][61] Later an alternative
explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the
point in the year that retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in
the black", because of the large volume of sales on that
day.[60][62]
"In the black" means profitable. Accountants originally used
black ink in ledgers to indicate profit, and red ink to indicate a
loss.
Black Friday also refers to an particularly disastrous day on
financial markets. The first Black Friday (1869), September 24,
1869, was caused by the efforts of two speculators, Jay Gould and
James Fisk, to corner the gold market on the New York Gold
Exchange.
A blacklist is a list of undesirable persons or entities (to be
placed on the list is to be "blacklisted").
Black comedy is a form of comedy dealing with morbid and serious
topics.
A black mark against a person relates to something bad they have
done.
A black mood is a bad one (cf Winston Churchill's clinical
depression, which he called "my black dog").[63]
Black market is used to denote the trade of illegal goods, or
alternatively the illegal trade of otherwise legal items at
considerably higher prices, e.g. to evade rationing.
Black propaganda is the use of known falsehoods, partial truths,
or masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.
Blackmail is the act of threatening someone to do something that
would hurt them in some way, such as by revealing sensitive
information about them, in order to force the threatened party to
fulfill certain demands. Ordinarily, such a threat is illegal.
If the black eight-ball, in billiards, is sunk before all others
are out of play, the player loses.
The black sheep of the family is the ne'er-do-well.
To blackball someone is to block their entry into a club or some
such institution. In the traditional English gentlemen's club,
members vote on the admission of a candidate by secretly placing a
white or black ball in a hat. If upon the completion of voting,
there was even one black ball amongst the white, the candidate
would be denied membership, and he would never know who had
"blackballed" him.
Black tea in the Western culture is known as "crimson tea" in
Chinese and culturally influenced languages, (紅 茶, Mandarin Chinese
hóngchá; Japanese kōcha; Korean hongcha), perhaps a more accurate
description of the color of the liquid.
"The black" is a wildfire suppression term referring to a burned
area on a wildfire capable of acting as a safety zone.
Black coffee refers to coffee without sugar or cream.
