Black Númenórean

Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.

Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic. In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges, and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, fear, evil, and elegance.

Black is the most common ink color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, as it provides the highest contrast with white paper and thus is the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white screen is the most common format used on computer screens.Heller, Eva, ''Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques'' (2009), p. 126 As of September 2019, the darkest material is made by MIT engineers from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.

Etymology

The word ''black'' comes from Old English ''blæc'' ("black, dark", ''also'', "ink"), from Proto-Germanic *''blakkaz'' ("burned"), from Proto-Indo-European *''bhleg-'' ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from base *''bhel-'' ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon ''blak'' ("ink"), Old High German ''blach'' ("black"), Old Norse ''blakkr'' ("dark"), Dutch ''blaken'' ("to burn"), and Swedish ''bläck'' ("ink"). More distant cognates include Latin ''flagrare'' ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and Ancient Greek ''phlegein'' ("to burn, scorch"). The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. ''Kuanos could mean both dark blue and black.Michel Pastoureau, ''Noir – Histoire d'une couleur'', p. 34. The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ''ater'' was a flat, dull black, while ''niger'' was a brilliant, saturated black. ''Ater'' has vanished from the vocabulary, but ''niger'' was the source of the country name ''Nigeria,'' the English word ''Negro'', and the word for "black" in most modern Romance languages ( French: ''noir''; Spanish and Portuguese: ''negro''; Italian: ''nero''; Romanian: ''negru'').

Old High German also had two words for black: ''swartz'' for dull black and ''blach'' for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms ''swart'' for dull black and ''blaek'' for luminous black. ''Swart'' still survives as the word ''swarthy'', while ''blaek'' became the modern English ''black''. The former is cognate with the words used for black in most modern Germanic languages aside from English (German: ''schwarz'', Dutch