This term is used quite a bit in The Arabian Nights to refer to black slaves. (The copy I am basing this on is an adaptation of the Richard Burton translation.) It seems to be a term indicating low status. In this version the sorcerer who sends Aladdin after the lamp is a Moor, and he is always called that, never "blackamoor".

Black"a*moor (?), n. [Black + Moor.]

A negro or negress.

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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