释义 |
ˈblackbirding, vbl. n. [f. blackbird (sense 2): the verb is recorded later.] The kidnapping of Negroes or Polynesians for slavery. Also as ppl. adj. Hence (as a back-formation) blackbird v.
1873Hotten Slang Dict. 84 Blackbirding, slave-catching. Term most applied nowadays to the Polynesian coolie traffic. 1883Academy 8 Sept. 158 [He] slays Bishop Patteson by way of reprisal for the atrocities of some ‘black-birding’ crew. 1884Pall Mall G. 19 Aug. 2/2 Years ago blackbirding scoundrels may have hailed from Fiji. 1888W. B. Churchward (title) ‘Blackbirding’ in the South Pacific. a1889in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang. I. 125/1 But sometimes—we are glad to say in the past—iniquitously blackbirded or kidnapped, and practically sold into slavery. 1897W. C. Morrow The Ape, the Idiot (1898) 314 ‘Blackbirding’ (which is kidnapping Gilbert Islanders and selling them to the coffee-planters of Central America). 1908Daily Chron. 6 Nov. 4/6 ‘Blackbirding’..is not yet an entirely extinct industry [in the Pacific Islands]. 1946K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) 4 He had really made it [sc. money] blackbirding natives from the Pacific Islands to the Queensland sugar plantations. |