Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BLACK-MAN, n.

1. A nursery bogy.Abd. 1873 J. Ogg Willie Waly 123:
Na, na, I winna skelp yer hips, Nor will the black man get ye.

2. Liquorice, black sugar; also black rock (Fif. 1934 (per Slg.³)).Edb. 1856 J. Ballantine Poems 108:
The bairnies a' skirlin' for “black-man.”

3. A kind of toffee.Sc. 1925 E. MacGirr in Scots Mag. (Dec.) 234:
Black man, a concoction of brown sugar and baking soda, blown to frothy, swollen nothingness, was splendid value at a big daud for a faurdin.Ags.⁹ 1926; Lth. 1934 (per Lnk.³):
Blackman, candy made with treacle. Locally very common fifty or sixty years ago. Probably now obsolete, with the sweet it describes.Ayr. [1836] J. Ramsay Woodnotes of a Wanderer (1848) 53:
And wee anes, daubit wi' blackman, Auld-farrant out the lap Did keek that day.

4. An ice-cream sandwich, with a wafer at one side, and a thick wafer, coated with chocolate at the edges, and containing marshmallow, at the other (Fif., Edb. 1975).