Semantic Development of the WordBlack

Abstract

Both Ralph Ellison and his mentor, Richard Wright, use the word black metaphorically. Throughout Wright's canon, from Uncle Tom's Children to American Hunger, the word black figuratively means fear, dread, anxiety, and strife simultaneously. Ralph Ellison in his novel, Invisible Man, uses black as a synonym for invisibility. Interestingly enough, a study of the semantic developments of black reveals that both Ellison's and Wright's metaphorical uses of the word find their source in the Indo-European origin of the word black. For instance, black in its Indo-European origin means fire, shining white, or flashing in various bright colors. Today, the word has at least fourteen shades of meaning, one of which is dark, completely without light. Thus, on the surface, it appears as if the word today has completely the opposite meaning from its original use. A further examination of the semantic history of the word, however, reveals that black picked up many variations through the course of time and has now metaphorically returned to its original definition.