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blackfellow. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
blackfellow, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
blackfellow in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From black + fellow.
Pronunciation
Noun
blackfellow (plural blackfellows)
- (Australia, now usually considered offensive, ethnic slur) A (male) Australian Aborigine.
- Coordinate term: whitefellow
1842 February 16, The Inquirer, Perth, page 5, column 2:"Me like my country — no much too hot, no much too cold. By and bye, white fellow come — soldier-man come. White fellow say, this our land, that our land — ALL country our land. Black fellow say no! my country no white fellow's country, and black fellow take spear.
1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber, published 2003, page 40:He was squatting on the ground like a blackfellow, quiet and still and cunning.
2000, Daryl Tonkin, Carolyn Landon, Jackson's Track: Memoir of a Dreamtime Place, page 256:It was as if the blackfellas were their property, and the Board could do with them as they saw fit.
2002, James Roberts, “At the Bar”, in Rebekah Clarkson, editor, Forked Tongues: A Delicious Anthology of Poetry and Prose, page 29:A blackfella and a whitefella are sitting at the bar. The whitefella says to the blackfella eh boss, whadya reckon?
The blackfella says since you ask, I consider it a metaphor of the historic case of the Coorong massacre of 1840.
2007, Noel Olive, Enough is Enough: A History of the Pilbara Mob, page 212:Most police officers had no blackfella cultural background, no knowledge of Aboriginal priorities in life, yet they were the power in the town.
Usage notes
- The word has been reclaimed to some extent by Indigenous Australians to describe themselves, but its use by other groups is now usually considered racially offensive.