Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.
Class III. Words Relating to MatterSection III. Organic Matter
2. Sensation
(ii) Specific Light
431. Blackness.
NOUN:BLACKNESS &c. adj.; darkness (want of light) [See Darkness]; swarthiness, swartness; lividity; dark -color, – tone; chiaroscuro [It.] [See Light].nigrification [rare], nigrefaction [obs.], nigrescence, denigration, infuscation [rare].
[COMPARISONS] jet, ink, ebony, ebon [now poetic], coal, pitch, soot, charcoal, sloe; smut, smutch, smudge, smirch; raven, crow.
NEGRO, negress, blackamoor, man of color, colored man, colored woman, nigger [colloq., usually contemptuous], darky or darkey [colloq.], black, blacky [colloq.], Ethiop, Ethiopian, buck or buck nigger [colloq., U. S.], coon [slang, U. S.], sambo [colloq. or humorous], kala admi [Hind.], Melanesian, Hottentot, Pygmy, Bushman, Negrillo [African Pygmy], Negrito [Asiatic Pygmy], African, Mandingo, Senegambian, Sudanese, Papuan, blackfellow, Australian aborigine.
[PIGMENTS] lamp -, ivory -, blue- black; writing -, printing -, printer’s -, Indian- ink.
VERB:BE BLACK &c. adj.
RENDER BLACK &c. adj.; black, blacken, infuscate [rare], denigrate, nigrify; blot, blotch, smut, smudge, smutch, smirch; darken [See Darkness].
ADJECTIVE:BLACK, sable, somber or sombre, livid, dark, inky, ebon, atramentous, jetty; coal-black, jet-black; fuliginous, pitchy, sooty; dhu [Ir. & Gaelic], swart, swarthy, dusky, dingy, murky or mirky; blotchy, smudgy, smutty; nigrine [rare], nigricant, nigrescent, Ethiopian, Ethiopic; low-toned, low in tone; of the deepest dye.
black as -jet &c. n., – my hat, – a shoe, – a tinker’s pot, – November, – the ace of spades, – thunder, – midnight; nocturnal (dark) [See Darkness]; gray [See Gray]; obscure [See Darkness].
ADVERB:in mourning.
QUOTATIONS: