"mink" (n.) = 'a black, a Negro'?

[Joel S. Berson]

So we have the etymology; now all we need is to have the sense for
the noun in the OED.

Joel

At 5/10/2009 02:16 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> > Nothing on my shelf either, at a glance. But there is/was the expression
> > "black as a mink", which was used early enough (at G. Books from 1815)
> > and which probably accounts for the "mink" allusion.
>
>         New-York General Sessions, Nov. 8.  People vs. Beers. --
> Beers, a mink-black little negro, and for years an approved waiter
> in a most respectable porter-house and tavern in Nassau-street, and
> lately a principal actor in the African corps dramatique, was
> yesterday tried and convicted of grand larceny.  It has been
> suggested that his passion for his new pursuit led him to the deed
> for the purpose of obtaining funds to purchase decorations for his theatre.
>***
>New-York American, November 10, 1821, p. 2, col. 5
>
> > I see a few 19th-century instances of 'black' men named/nicknamed "Mink"
> > (?relevance).
>
>I think I recall a Faulkner character named "Mink" -- he would have
>been a white haracter.
>
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
>Date: Saturday, May 9, 2009 11:39 pm
>Subject: Re: "mink" (n.) = 'a black, a Negro'?
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > > ...
> > > "At 10Q.M. de moss spiceable brack folk ob stinkation gan show he
> > > head from ebery treet and ally, like so many Mohe-choah Mink in a
> > mud-bank ..."
> > >
> > > I presume "mink" here means 'a black/Negro person', from "mink
> > > n.1  3.a.  ... thick glossy dark brown fur".  And "mohe-choah" is
> > 'mocha' (?).
> > >
> > > Thus not in OED draft rev. Mar. 2009.  Nor in Chapman or
> > > Wentworth/Flexner, the only two American slang dictionaries on my
> > poor shelf.
> > -
> >
> > Nothing on my shelf either, at a glance. But there is/was the expression
> > "black as a mink", which was used early enough (at G. Books from 1815)
> > and which probably accounts for the "mink" allusion. At G. Books I see
> > a
> > few 19th-century instances of 'black' men named/nicknamed "Mink"
> > (?relevance).
> >
> > I reckon "moch[o]a" is probably right, but I'm not sure why it's used
> > here, whether some mink were called "mocha" or whether it's just to say
> > "black" again (but "mocha" is/was less dark than "black", right?). My
> > OED shows a "mocha" referring to the color of a cat (?relevance).
> >
> > -- Doug Wilson
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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