black bookn.
/ˌblak ˈbʊk/, U.S. /ˌblæk ˈbʊk/ 1. A record book or ledger, usually relating to finance or administration, bound in black. Now chiefly historical.As a legal term, black book refers exclusively to the records of the Exchequer: see quot. 1739, and sense 4a.
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society > communication > book > kind of book > [noun] > official book, usually bound in black
black book1465
1465 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 136 The certeyn somme is writen in my blak book of foreyn reseytes.
1479 in J. T. Fowler Memorials Church SS. Peter & Wilfrid, Ripon (1886) II. 158 In libro extentus temporalium archiepiscopatus nostri nuncupato blakboke.
a1525 ( Coventry Leet Bk. (1908) II. 464 Pasture..such as [he] vnderstandes owen to be Comen be the blak boke of this Citie, which specifieth þe certente of comen.
1584 J. Hooker Offices & Duties Sworne Officer Excester Ep. Ded. sig. B.ji The great Leger or blacke booke, wherein at large I haue set downe whatsoeuer concerneth the state of this citie, and the gouernment of the same.
1624 W. Bedell Copies Certaine Lett. xi. 141 The Copie of the record of Doctor Parkers Consecration..which..you saw in a blacke Booke.
1657 J. Howell Londinopolis 370 Besides all this, he keepeth the black Book of Receits, and the Lord Treasurers Key of the Treasury.
1724 (title) The register of the most noble Order of the Garter, from its cover in black velvet, usually called the Black Book.
1739 G. Jacob New Law-dict. (ed. 4) Black book, is a book lying in the Exchequer. See stat. Annals 154.
1785 Monthly Rev. Mar. 189 This Black Book is in the possession of the corporation, and relates to the history of that period.
1823 T. Lane Stud. Guide Lincoln's Inn 122 Curious regulations..are to be found in their Black Books.
1908 C. Welch in P. H. Ditchfield Memorials Old London 160 The Black Books also show that in 1457 a payment was made by the society to the gardener of Staple Inn.
1915 Howitzer (U.S. Mil. Acad.) 183 If you are looking for a model of a soldier as he is in the Black Book and Drill Regs, just glimpse at Summers.
1996 Victorian Soc. Ann. 1995 40/2 The Black Book..lists the following items of furniture for Ockham Park: 1894: dining room table;..1901 library ladder.
2.
a. A record of the names of people liable to censure or punishment; a book containing this. Also figurative.
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the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > dispraise or discommendation > [noun] > censure or condemnation > black-listing > black list or book
black book1548
blacklist1624
shit-list1942
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry V f. xlviii He and his entende to occupy this country, inhabite this land,..extinguishe our blud and put our names in the blacke boke of obliuion.
1592 R. Greene Blacke Bookes Messenger Ep. to Rdr. sig. A3 Ned Brownes villanies..are too many to bee described in my Blacke Booke.
1625 T. Myriell in R. Wilkinson Stripping of Ioseph Ep. Ded. 17 This late inhumane Practise in Amboyna is registred in Gods blacke Booke to bee repaid againe vnto the Actors, with full measure in due time.
1657 T. Reeve God's Plea for Nineveh 20 This Day-book will prove a black-book to him.
1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) 115 The black book is a register of the university, kept by the proctor, in which he records any person who affronts him, or the university; and no person, who is so recorded, can proceed to his degree.
1743 H. Fielding Jonathan Wild iii. iii, in Misc. III. 209 Marybone was immediately entered by Wild in his Black-Book, and was presently after impeached and executed.
1816 C. James New Mil. Dict. (ed. 4) 57/2 The black book is a sort of memorandum which is kept in every regiment to describe the character and conduct of non-commissioned officers and soldiers.
1828 Hobart Town Courier 26 July 2 It is important to make the ‘Black Books’, or Registers of Offences, as complete as possible.
1921 Compiled Law Masons Michigan 44 A black book, in which he shall record..the names of all candidates rejected by his own Lodge, and..the names of those rejected, expelled or suspended by other Lodges.
1934 Times 30 Oct. 12/5 Always Nemecsek is failing in his duties and having his name entered in the black book.
2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 1 Jan. a10/5 The project made the national taxpayers association's ‘black book’ of wasted tax revenue for all of Germany in 2009.
b. †to be in the black book(s): to be in disgrace (obsolete). to be in (a person's) black books: to have incurred a person's displeasure, to be out of favour with a person. Cf. to be in (a person's) bad books, to be in (a person's) good books at book n. Phrases 2.
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the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disfavour > be out of favour [verb (intransitive)]
to be, or stand in, (‥) umbrage1641
to be in (a person's) black books1771
1771 A. M. E. Cooke Hermit Converted i. ii. 15 No doubt the Knight is in her black book for that, as long as he lives.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (at cited word) He is down in the black book, i.e. has a stain in his character.
1837 Cornwall Chron. (Launceston, Austral.) 18 Nov. 2 Being already in the ‘black books’, he was ordered three months to a road party.
1881 J. Payn From Exile 89 This unfortunate youth is so deep in your black books.
1922 H. Walpole Cathedral iii. 42 It was as though the whole family were in his black books for some disgraceful act.
1948 E. Partridge Words at War, Words at Peace 28 From crime to the reprobation with which it is regarded is but a short step: ‘to get into a person's black books’..is always unpleasant.
2006 L. L. Chase Lord Perfect ix. 129 If it comes to being afraid or not, my lord, I'd just as soon not be in her black books.
3. An official report allegedly prepared in 1535–6 for King Henry VIII, after an investigation into the condition and administration of the monasteries. Now historical and rare.
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society > communication > information > reporting > [noun] > a report > specific report
black book1565
yellow book1849
1565 A. Nowell Reproufe f. 14v Let the horrible historie of their darke, dreadfull, and moste diuellishe dooynges, notified to kyng Henrie the eight, and after to the Parliament house, by the reporte of the visitours, retournyng from their visitacion of Abbaies,..bee a proofe thereof: whiche beyng regestered in a blacke booke [etc.].
?c1575 Manner of Dissolving Abbeys (BL Cotton Titus F. iii) f. 269v Cromwell..caused visitacions to be made of all the religious houses touching their conuersacions wherevppon was retourned the booke called the blacke booke expressing of euerie suche house the vile liues and abhominable factes.
1581 T. Norton Let. in W. Dugdale Antiq. Warwickshire (1730) II. 1111/2 T. Cromwell..having..thus searcht into their lives, which by a Black Book, containing a world of enormities, were represented in no small measure scandalous.
1735 R. Challoner Short Hist. Protestant Relig. iii. 24 Q. What follow'd this Visitation? A. A black Book was exhibited containing a World of Enormities lay'd to the Charge of the Religious.
1815 Encycl. Brit. III. 641/1 The black-book of the English monasteries was a detail of the scandalous enormities practised in religious houses.
1921 M. A. Canney Encycl. Relig. Black Book, The report of the committee which King Henry VIII. nominated in 1535 to inquire into the condition and administration of the monasteries.
1995 Hist. Jrnl. 38 296 There is no contemporary account of the visitation material being shown to either house of parliament, nor has the ‘Black Book’ ever been identified. But the evidence..does suggest that..the anonymous writer had the story about right.
4. British History. The distinctive name of various official record books, usually bound in black.
a. the Black Book of the Exchequer: a book of documents, probably compiled in the early 13th cent. by Alexander de Swereforde, containing an official account of the royal revenues, etc., at the time of its compilation. Cf. the Red Book of the Exchequer at red book n. 1.Preserved in the National Archives of Great Britain at Kew (reference E36/266).
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society > trade and finance > management of money > keeping accounts > account or statement of > [noun] > account book > specific
Great Roll1397
pell1434
red book?1445
pipe1461
the Black Book of the Exchequer1592
pipe roll1612
great book1794
scoreboard1823
1592 J. Stow Annales 218 This yeere was compiled a booke of the orders and rules of the Exchequer, nowe commonly called there the blacke booke.
1605 W. Camden Remaines i. 6 It is written in the Blacke booke of the Exchequer, that our Auncestors termed England, a Storehouse of Treasure.
1681 T. De Laune Present State London iv. 136 Two Chamberlains of the Exchequer, in whose Custody are..those antient Books called Dooms-Day, and the Black Book of the Exchequer.
1740 Student's Law Dict. Niger Liber, is the Name of a certain Register in the Exchequer, called the Black Book.
1770 New Present State Great Brit. viii. 152 The chamberlains have in their custody..the black book of the exchequer; which contains an account of ancient taxes.
1838 W. J. Thoms Bk. of Court Introd. 12 Of the Officers of the Court of Henry II. we have a very detailed account in the ‘Black Book of the Exchequer’.
1892 W. R. Anson Law & Custom of Constit. II. iv. ii. §2. 163 The first account is taken from the Black Book of the Exchequer.
1923 Smith Coll. Stud. Hist. Jan. 112 Chidiock Warnour..knew the Black Book of the Exchequer and pre-Tudor practice to good purpose.
1956 Eng. Hist. Rev. 71 179 This information is contained in a remarkable letter preserved in the Black Book of the Exchequer.
2005 Hist. Irel. 13 7/2 The ‘Black Book’ of the Exchequer..was drawn up around 1207 in the reign of King John and is an assembly of precedents for the English crown.
b. the Black Book of the Admiralty: an ancient code of rules relating to maritime law, based on the laws of Oleron, an island off the Atlantic coast of France, and codified in 1336, during the reign of King Edward III.The original manuscript contained also an account of ancient maritime customs and usages. It was lost in the early 19th cent., and the surviving sections from all known sources were collated and published in Sir Travers Twiss's Black Book of the Admiralty (1871). See I. C. B. Dear & P. Kemp, Oxf. Compan. Ships & Sea (2005) 409.
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society > armed hostility > hostilities at sea > administration and ceremonial > [noun] > naval rules
the Black Book of the Admiralty1658
1658 W. Prynne Plea for Lords 501 By the notable Record of 22 E.1. in Cooks 4 Institutes p. 142, 143, 144. and Seldens Mare Clausum, l. 2. c. 28, f. 275. the Black Book of the Admiralty, & the Parliament Roll of 4 H. 4. n. 47. for confirmation of the Laws of Oleron.
a1661 R. Zouch Jurisdict. of Admiralty (1663) 10 Such things as are contained, and preserved in the Antient black Book of the Admiralty, as certain Royal Ordinances, made by Antient Kings of the Realm.
1694 G. Dawson Origo Legum ii. ix. 123 They are also to be found in the black Book of the Admiralty, as well as the Laws of Oleron.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine sig. Dd4v Oleron,..a code of..rules relating to naval affairs..formed by Richard I..are still preserved in the black book of the admiralty.
1818 N.-Amer. Rev. & Misc. Jrnl. 7 341 The laws of Oleron, the articles preserved in the Black book of the admiralty..formed nearly the whole stock of her written maritime jurisprudence.
1868 R. G. Williams & G. Bruce Jurisdict. & Pract. High Court Admiralty Introd. 4/2 The Black Book of the Admiralty is an ancient compilation of laws, ordinances, and records in support of the authority and jurisdiction of the Court.
1874 Athenaeum 18 Apr. 519/1 The ‘Black Book of the Admiralty’ is..a collection of early ordinances for the government of the Admiral and the fleet.
1995 New Scientist (Nexis) 5 Aug. 4848 By the 1300s, the English navy listed two flag signals in its Black Book of the Admiralty.
c. the Black Book of Lincoln's Inn: any of a series of record books relating to Lincoln's Inn, London, in which are recorded the minutes and memoranda of the governing Council of Benchers; frequently in plural.
ΚΠ
1801 Trans. Soc. Arts, Manufactures, & Commerce 19 Pref. p. vi Mr. Brereton was a Bencher of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's-Inn, filled the office of Treasurer, and was Keeper of the Black-Book.]
1814 T. B. Howell Compl. Coll. State. Trials XX. 688 Particulars concerning the last mentioned proceedings are to be found in the Order Book of the Inner Temple; in the Black Book of Lincoln's-inn, under dates Dec. 13, 1793,..[etc.].
1853 Proc. Soc. Antiquaries London 2 290 By the aid of the Black Book of Lincoln's Inn, he has been enabled to trace the history of this John More.
1928 Times 30 Mar. 21/4 Although the earliest records of the Inns have not survived, it is at least known from the famous Black Books of Lincoln's Inn that as early as 1442 a special intimacy existed between the members of that society and the Middle Temple.
1983 E. W. Ives Common Lawyers of Pre-Reformation Eng. iii. 37 The Black Books of Lincoln's Inn (the only continuous inn record to survive for the fifteenth century) date from 1422.
2004 B. J. Corrigan Playhouse Law in Shakespeare's World ii. 32 On 9 February 1579/80 the Black Books of Lincoln's Inn record a payment of £3 6s 8d ‘to Mr Ferrand one of the Queen's chaplains pro commedia’.
5. A book of the ‘black art’ (black art n. 1) of necromancy; a book of magic spells.
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the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > [noun] > necromancy > book of
black book1593
1593 G. Harvey New Let. Notable Contents sig. D He should be an Aretin..that recorded the history of S. Thomas of Aquin, and forged the most detestable Blacke-booke, de tribus Impostoribus mundi.
1629 F. Quarles Argalus & Parthenia ii. 61 It goes beyond the art Of all blacke bookes, to maske, with such disguise, So sweet a face.
1684 J. Harington Grecian Story ii. 116 She saw him stand Last Night near Twelve, with small black Book and Wand;..thus bred appear'd strong Fancy, That She was Conjur'd forth by Negromancy.
1711 tr. L. Bordelon Hist. Ridiculous Extravagancies Monsieur Oufle ix. 261 When any one reads the Grimoire or Black-book, and other Books of Conjurations, the Devil appears, and stifles or strangles those who rais'd him.
1842 R. H. Barham Raising Devil in Ingoldsby Legends 2nd Ser. 276 A ‘Magician’..has brought him [sc. Cornelius Agrippa] and his terrible ‘Black Book’ again before the world.
1893 Pop. Sci. Monthly Jan. 410/1 Nibamon is unequaled in Thebes for his skill in curing the most violent headaches. He arrives toward evening, accompanied by two servants; one carries his black book.
1901 C. R. Lanman tr. S. Konow Rāja-çekhara’s Karpūra-mañjarī i. i. 235 As for black-book and spell—they may all go to hell!
1970 Life 9 Jan. 23 I have my black book of incantations, which I would never show anyone.
1998 L. Forbes Bombay Ice (1999) 134 Atharva-Veda: the Brahmins' Secret Book, like those Black Books of early magicians and alchemists.
6. An address book, spec. one used to record the names and contact details of (potential) sexual partners. Also figurative. Frequently in little black book.
ΚΠ
1940 Life 22 Apr. 14/2 There was a slight flurry in the crowded courtroom as Miss Francis' little black book, which is supposed to read like a who's who of the cinema, was produced.
1957 Federal Suppl. (U.S.) 151 250/2 Her ‘black-book’ of names, telephone numbers and addresses shows her to be the friend of a number of persons who..had been dealers in narcotics.
1981 TV Picture Life Mar. 13/1 Now the girl who had a bigger little black book than most men claims: ‘Marriage gives me all the excitement I need.’
1990 R. Goldberg & G. J. Goldberg Anchors xxii. 334 The old correspondents' black book comes out, full of sources and phone numbers.
1995 S. McCarthy Forsaking All Others i. 21 Jeremy, though—he's a devil. If you're not careful you'll end up as just another name in his little black book.
2003 Attitude Jan. 16/2 If there was a TV station that's well connected it's MTV. The channel's little black book is positively teaming with a-listers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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