Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also black coney, black parts) the female genitals.

1634		John Suckling Goblins III ii: But O the black, the black! / Give me as much again and let’t be sack.
1639		William Cavendish Variety in Wardroper (1969) 22: I do love thy black, black, black, / I do love thy black, black, black.
1655		J. Cotgrave Wits Interpreter 77: It is the sober black I love; / I lov’t so well that I profest, / I love the blackest parts the best.
1691		in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 198: But for my money / Give me the bonny, bonny black Coney.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(b) (US) black sexuality.

1842

Flash (NY) 11 Sept. n.p.: Emma Jones, one of her boarders, who was formerly so partial to ‘black’.

(c) in pl, a suit of black clothing, e.g. for funerals.

1858		‘Shadow’ Midnight Scenes 26: He was once respectable, says his faded ‘blacks’.
1936		‘Josephine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 24: The world dusted off its blacks and hoped for invitations to the funeral.

(d) ‘blackface’, as worn by ‘nigger minstrels’, thus the minstrel profession.

1889

Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 4 May 184/2: When I first appeared out of black I had to make myself known to the audience.

(e) (UK milit.) stout (as opposed to the lighter-coloured beer).

1900

Regiment 27 Jan. 288/1: Many of the terms used [in the British Army] are derived from India [...] Beer is variously known as ‘soup,’ ‘medicine,’ ‘pongelo,’ &c [...] beer and stout are distinguished by the terms ‘black’ and ‘white’.

(f) (US black) the night, night-time.

1939		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 22 July 11/1: All eyes fell east the other black when Bob Bell [came into] the Harlem Club with Katherine ‘Blondie’ Scott .
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 253: black (n.): night.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 64: You’re out here gassing while the black is passing.
1946		Freddy Slack & Ella Mae Morse ‘House of Blue Lights’ 🎵 Say, you look ready as Mister Freddy this black.
1955		Babs Gonzales ‘The Be-Bop Santa Claus’ 🎵 ’Twas the black before Christmas [etc.].

(g) the black market; thus on the black, engaged in the black market; employed illicitly, ‘off the books’.

1961		(con. WW2) R. Poole London E1 (2012) 187: Everyone who wants anythink that’s rationed, they get it on the black’.
1983		(con. 1965–73) Tim Page Nam 42: On the black you get a hot chopper, a can of Cs or a PBR that fell off the back of a truck.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 86/1: since ca. 1942.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 31: This murderer was now employed, on the black, by a treacherous French government.

(h) (drugs) opium.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1979		(con. 1953) Pepper & Pepper Straight Life 139: I was once in jail with a Chinaman. He had been shooting ‘black’ (opium) for years.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 3: Black — Marijuana; opium.

(i) (drugs) a generic term for hashish, esp. varieties that are very dark khaki.

1982		Abel Marihuana Dict.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 149: Sounds like they’re all in mournin for their three tonne of black.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 Feb. 5: I can only conclude that Willliam Hague and Ann Widdecombe must have spent all of Monday night sitting up smoking Lebanese black.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘Whatever you need, mate. Charlie, crack, pills, smack, G, P, ice or black’.

(j) (Aus.) Toohey’s Old beer; a dark ale.

1996		Google Groups:rec.arts.sf.fandom 20 Jan. 🌐 I think the one you’re thinkingg [sic] of here is Toohey’s Old [...] It comes originally from Newcastle, in New South Wales just north of Sydney. It’s one of my favourites but doesn’t seem to travel. A ‘schooner of black’ never tastes the same outside of Newcastle.
2006		Trip Advisor: Singapore 2 Nov. 🌐 [I]n NSW people drink schooners or middies eg I’ll have a schooner of black. means a 15 oz glass of tooheys old.
2006		Guardian 19 Nov. 🌐 ‘Old’ beer is darker than ‘new’ and more like proper beer. Tooheys Old, or ‘black’ as it is known in northern NSW, is good.
2011		B. Fingerton Rock The Bloody Boat! 31 Aug. 🌐 [blog comment] I remember when I was first barmaiding - late 70’s early 80’s - the ‘old’ drinkers were so funny. Not many places had both Brown beer and Black beer on tap. Black drinkers wouldn’t drink Brown - with the reason that that stuff would kill a black dog. And the Brown drinkers wouldn’t drink Black cos that stuff would kill a brown dog!
2017		Newcastle Herald (NSW) 8 June 🌐 I said to the girl, ‘can I have a schooner of black’.

(k) (drugs) heroin; esp. black tar heroin.

c.2003

Dalton Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 When Dalton explained that Carlos wasn’t answering his phone ,and that he wanted two blacks and a white, he was told, 12th and Jackson 20 minutes [...] Suffice it to say that about an hour later, Carlos rolled up, dropped two grams of chiva, a gram of coke, and the new cell phone number.

(l) (US campus) incomprehensible course material.

1989

J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 black [CSM] incomprehensible course material.

(a) a shabby rogue [blackguard n. (1)].

1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I iii: That fellow Sly always kicks me. [...] I’ve taught him to be such a black.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 201: But all of these right well, I ween, Have passed for Blacks, on board the Queen.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 264: The rendezvous of the bloods and blacks of Berkeley.

(b) a blackmailer; thus constr. with the, blackmail.

1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: At black—Blackmailer.
1936		Sunshine Advocate (Vic.) 11 Sept. 6/3: ‘Blacks’ are blackmailers.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 309: In the Underworld it is called ‘The Black.’ (If a man is a blackmailer they say: ‘he’s at the black’).
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 189/1: At the Black. Engaged in blackmail.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 147: Anyone who was having the black put on him had only to come to me and I saw to it that it was stopped.
1970		‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in P. Laurie Scotland Yard (1972) 321: black, the: a blackmailer’s information.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 112: Blackmail wasn’t his exclusive trade [...] ‘All right, Harold, [...] I’m not going to fuck around with you. You’re going to be charged with your bit of black, also with conspiracy to rob.’.
1980		T. Lewis GBH 220: ‘How long had you had the black on Ray?’.

(c) constr. with the, the illegal economy; usu. in phr. on the black, working without paying tax, insurance etc.

1994

I. Welsh ‘A Smart Cunt’ in Acid House 207: I’m on the black, auld Harry sniggers.

(d) (orig. milit.) a black mark, i.e. a mistake, a serious error.

1941		H. Bolitho Eng. Digest Feb. in DSUE (1984).
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 192: I couldn’t go back to the goods shed either. They wouldn’t have me after the black I put up.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 122: If he’s turfin’ all of you out, you must have put up some kind of black.

(e) (US black) a form of address to a fellow black man, e.g. Whassup, black?

[1932		C. McKay Gingertown 63: There is no greater insult among Aframericans than calling a black person black. [...] which is considered a term of reproach in the mouths of colored people quite as contemptuous as ‘nigger’ in the mouths of whites].
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 71: You ready, black?
2002		G. Pelecanos Hell to Pay 10: Let me get one of those cigarettes from you, black.
2003		Dizzee Rascal ‘Hold Ya Mouf’ 🎵 You got a problem, black?
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 104: ‘Step aside, Black,’ Jamal said. ‘I’m about to do this’.