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black spot n. A black spot is an acronym for any place or a particular area where bags, handsets or other handy valuables are often snatched by pickpockets who have studied such areas and knew quite well that a large number of people come to the area to transact business, which makes it easy for them to spot and identify their victims. [English Nigeria Crime & Prisons] [full cite] (May. 2, 2007)

black starting n. The loss of four major transmission lines from Hawaiian Electric’s Kahe power plant last night triggered an island-wide blackout.…HECO was woking last night to restart its generators at Kahe and Waiau, a process called “black starting.” The utility said power was to be restored beginning with areas on the west side of the island. [English Jargon] [full cite] (Jan. 2, 2009)

black swan n. Finance is about numbers, and some numerical analysis will always be needed to see trends and plan investment strategies. But there are limits to numerical jugglery, and this is the underlying message of the current round of financial turmoil. Any amount of historical data fed into computers will not help economists and traders have a perfect understanding of the future. Financial alchemy will often create dust rather than gold. Rare events—call them black swans or fat tails—can make incredibly smart types look like fools. [English Money & Finance Slang] [full cite] (Mar. 19, 2008)

black swan event n. On Black Monday, October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones index, for reasons still being debated, fell 508 points, almost a quarter of its total. (The current equivalent, for comparison’s sake, would be a 3,200-point loss on one day.) The drop turned out to be a “black swan event,” a weirdly poetic economist’s term meaning, basically, a fluke (though few people remember it, the Dow still eked out a positive finish for the year). [English] [full cite] (Feb. 7, 2008)

black water n. A brave West Australian Government is considering asking its residents to at least think about drinking recycled sewage water. In Victoria, the Bracks Government has firmly ruled it out and the Liberals agree there is no need for a move to drink what is known as black water. [English Environment] [full cite] (Jan. 7, 2007)

Black Wednesday n. Around five million workers—about one in six of the UK’s workforce—will pull a post New Year’s Eve sickie today. Black Wednesday, as it has been dubbed by employers, will also see one in 1,000 people quit their jobs and one in 10 skive to bargain hunt at the January sales. [English United Kingdom Employment Slang] [full cite] (Jan. 8, 2008)

black whistle n. Yang Zuwu, general manager of the Premier League side Beijing Hyundai, said that “faked matches, black whistles, betting on games and other ugly phenomena” were increasing, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. “Black whistles” is slang for corrupt referees. [China Sports & Recreation Slang] [full cite] (Oct. 5, 2004)

black-birding n. The settlers found it difficult to recruit workers from among the warring tribes. With this began the pernicious trade in human beings: unsuspecting people were kidnapped or lured onto visiting ships on the other Pacific Islands and brought to work on the plantations. The practice was known as “black-birding” and Fiji’s black-birding era came to an end only in the 1870s. [English] [full cite] (Jul. 9, 2007)

black-brown divide n. Simmering beneath the surface of activism for job creation and workers’ rights is a tension not unique to New Orleans, what labor activists refer to as the “black-brown divide.” In this case, black New Orleanians see reconstruction jobs filled by Latino workers, while they remain disconnected from the workforce. Moreover, labor’s decentralized and segregated history introduces the hurdle of integrating predominantly white Southern locals with black New Orleanians who need access to union jobs most. [English Race] [full cite] (Nov. 22, 2006)

black-ccent n. With his light skin, African father and white mother, and only faint hint of what I call a “black-ccent”—the subtle vocal quality that makes most black Americans identifiable as black over the phone (yes, one can “sound black.” It’s been demonstrated repeatedly by linguistic analysis, and the “black-ccent” overlaps only partially with white Southern)—Mr. Obama would easily be cast by these types as “not too black.” [Black English Race] [full cite] (Sep. 28, 2006)

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