Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—B

Black

for mourning was a Roman custom (Juvenal, x. 245) borrowed from the Egyptians.

Black,
in blazonry, means constancy, wisdom, and prudence. Black, in several of the Oriental nations, is a badge of servitude, slavery, and low birth. Our word blackguard seems to point to this meaning. The Latin niger meant bad, unpropitious. (See Blackguard.)

Black

(See under Colours for its symbolisms, etc.).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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