Contextualizebeta

blackbirding

noun

Etymology

From blackbird + -ing, perhaps from the putative slang blackbird (“indigenous Pacific islander”).

  1. inherited from blakebird
  2. suffixed as blackbirding — “blackbird + ing”

Definitions

  1. The practice of kidnapping Pacific Islanders, or kanakas, for sale as cheap labour.

    • Burns Philp was to incur public odium in the most notorious case in Queensland concerning blackbirding.

  2. present participle and gerund of blackbird

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for blackbirding. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA