Negronessn.
/ˈniːɡrəʊnᵻs/, U.S. /ˈniɡroʊnəs/ Originally U.S.
The state or condition of being a person of black African origin or descent; the fact or quality of having attitudes, experiences, etc., characteristic of black people. Cf. Negritude n.See usage note at Negro n. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > black person > [noun] > race or blood
tar-brush1796
niggerism1844
Negroness1937
Negritude1949
Negrohood1962
1937 Z. N. Hurston Their Eyes were watching God xvi. 215 She was cruel to those more negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness.
1952 Yale French Stud. No. 21. 62 Despite the fact that all French Negro poets are perfectly fluent in French.., they often find it awkward to express their ‘negroness’ in that language.
1958 J. Kerouac Subterraneans 31 The old eccentric lady not any more conscious of her Negroness.
1965 M. B. Tolson Harlem Gallery 20 The I-ness of my humanness and Negroness.
1973 Black World Mar. 19 Bakara asks: ‘Where is the Negro-ness of a literature written in imitation of the meanest of social intelligences to be found in American culture, i.e., the white middle class?’
1997 Afr. Amer. Rev. 31 80/2 A more progressive counterpoint to this assumption contradicts African American ‘Negro-ness’ with the assertion of African American ‘American-ness’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1937