Dictionary

darky en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English dark Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English darky From dark + -y.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, countable) Alternative spelling of darkey (“dark-skinned person”).
   alt of darkey
   • He’s a small farmer, not a big planter, and if the boys thought enough of him to elect him lieutenant, then it’s not for any darky to talk impudent about him. 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published June 1944, →OCLC, part I, page 17:
2. (alt-of, alternative, countable) Alternative spelling of darkey (“dark lantern”).
   alt of darkey
3. (countable, obsolete, qualifier:thieves' cant, uncountable) The time of darkness: night or dusk.
   • […] at Darky they buss them out of the Ground, that is, at Night they steal the Horses, then pike thirty or forty Straches that Darky, that is go thirty or forty Miles that Night, towards the next Gaff to fence them, […] 1761, The Discoveries of John Poulter, alias Baxter, etc. MS. notes, page 39:

Forms