negro

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese negro (“black”), from Latin nigrum (“shiny black”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- (“bare; night”). Doublet of noir.

adj

1. (dated, offensive) Relating to a black ethnicity.
   Recently, on a wintry Sunday, some 2,500 white Chicago area residents embarked on a strange safari across the city, determined to do what most of them had never done before—visit a Negro home. Eager to purge themselves of ignorance about the city's "other half," they were participants in Interracial Home Visit Day, a "Coffee Klatsch" co-sponsored by local Catholic, Jewish and Protestant groups in an effort to eliminate racial bigotry and hate. 1963 April, “Anti-bias Coffee Klatsch: Windy City Interfaith Project Fights Bigotry with Coffee, Cookies and Conversation”, in Ebony, volume XVIII, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Johnson Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 67
2. (dated, now offensive) Black or dark brown in color.

noun

1. (dated, now offensive) A person of Black African ancestry.
   The negroes believe that its presence has a sanitary effect upon their cattle […] 1867, Mayne Reid, Quadrupeds: what they are and where found, page 141
   There were two negros who were guilty of thieving; he went and had them both shot, and gave notice that he would put all to death who kept disturbing the property of the white people, and kept confusion in their land. 2003, Benjamin Hawkins, Howard Thomas Foster, The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796–1810, page 259
   His parents had always said that the area he grew up in had been a nice place to live before 'those Negros invaded'. 2010, Ryan Acheson, Chalk, page 68