bible-black

English

A King James Bible bound in black

Alternative forms

• bible black, Bible-black, Bible black, Bible-black, Bible Black

Etymology

From the fact that personal Bibles were formerly often bound in a black cover.

Adjective

bible-black (not comparable)

1. (literary) Having the colour of a Bible bound in black.
   • 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] ‎^[1], New York: New Directions:

     It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and- rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.

   • 1985, Marillion (lyrics and music), “Bitter Suite”, in Misplaced Childhood:

     The sky was Bible black in Lyon / When I met the Magdalene / She was paralysed in a streetlight / She refused to give her name

   • 2023 May 28, Rick Jordan, “I went to the only place on Earth where every nation gets along”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎^[2], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-30:

     A little further along the coast, watched by lines of Bible-black cormorants, a monument was unveiled in 2022 commemorating Chile's role in returning Shackleton and his men to Punta Arenas: next to a section of hull from the good ship Yelcho is a statue of its captain, Luis Pardo, pointing southwards out to sea.

   • a. 2024, “Bible Black”, in Farrow & Ball‎^[3], archived from the original on 2024-04-28:

     Once used to describe the intense black of a starless night in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Bible Black is an inky violet shade that adds richness and depth to any feature, inside or out.

Usage notes

• Most likely, there is no visual difference between "bible-black" and ordinary black, and bible- is only added to give the adjective a literary effect.