
To ancient Greeks, black represented the underworld, separated from the living by the river Acheron, whose water ran black. 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. Ancientįor the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations being the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. They began by using charcoal, and later achieved darker pigments by burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide. The Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the country name Nigeria, the English word Negro, and the word for "black" in most modern Romance languages ( French: noir Spanish and Portuguese: negro Italian: nero Romanian: negru).īlack was one of the first colors used in art. The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ater was a flat, dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Kuanos' could mean both dark blue and black. The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. More distant cognates include Latin flagrare ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and Ancient Greek phlegein ("to burn, scorch"). 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").

In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges and government officials in much of Europe. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic.

It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld.

īlack was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day.

It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and gray. Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light.
