# origin of the word "jet" as a black term

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777 "2000-05-29T03:24:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![labdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5fc32e/32.png) [@labdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labdude)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777/1 "2000-05-29T03:24:22Z")

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I’m reading a book on school busing in the US, and the book states that the black neighborhood in boston is/was called “the jet.” This also made me think of JET magazine. Anyone have an idea of the origin?

michael

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777/2 "2000-05-29T03:35:26Z")

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It’s presumedly from the mineral jet, which is a form of hard coal which can be polished and used in jewelry.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777/3 "2000-05-29T03:37:54Z")

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…we quite often get in jet beads(strung) which are from the Victorian period. I dare say they were in use either farther back.

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**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777/4 "2000-05-29T04:10:12Z")

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The phrase _jet black_ is relatively common. I wasn’t aware of the mineral _jet_ but I presume that’s the origin. I think the phrase is intended to indicate a superlative black – like “black as night” – and was not originally intended to have racial overtones.

I personally have never heard it used racially. But once the connection between “jet” and “black” is made it’s only natural that it would be used with racial connotations, both pro and con. In this case it seems those who want to use it as a positive term seem to have won out.

A similar phrase that seems to have gone the other way is _black as the ace of spades_. Again, I don’t think it was originally intended as anything but an emphatic way to say something was really black, but it seems now to have racist echoes – probably from the derogatory reference to blacks as “spades”. I think you’d look long and hard for a magazine for Afro-American audiences called _SPADE_.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2000, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-jet-as-a-black-term/20777/5 "2000-05-29T14:37:25Z")

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The name of the mineral derives from “Gagus”, a town in Lycia (part of modern Turkey).