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darktown

American  
[dahrk-toun] / ˈdɑrkˌtaʊn /

noun

Older Use: Usually Offensive.

  1. a part of a town or city inhabited largely by Black people.

Sensitive Note

This term from the 1880s, as used in the American South, is usually perceived as insulting and racist. But Darktown Strutters’ Ball was the name of a popular jazz song written in 1917.

Etymology

Origin of darktown

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85; dark + town

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.