Negro

In the English language, the term negro is a term historically used to refer to people of Black African heritage. The term negro means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from Latin niger), where English took it from. The term can be viewed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used, as well as the time period and context in which it is applied. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe.

==In English== thumb|450px|A European map of West Africa, 1736. Included is the archaic mapping designation of [[Negroland.]] Around 1442, the Portuguese first arrived in Southern Africa while trying to find a sea route to India. The term , literally meaning 'black', was used by the Spanish and Portuguese as a simple description to refer to the Bantu peoples that they encountered. denotes 'black' in Spanish and Portuguese, derived from the Latin word niger, meaning 'black', which itself is probably from a Proto-Indo-European root , "to be dark", akin to , 'night'. Negro was also used for the peoples of West Africa in old maps labelled Negroland, an area stretching along the Niger River.