Word.ws English Dictionary

Black Peter

Black Peter proper noun: the companion of Saint Nicholas in Dutch folklore, depicted as a blackamoor.

black peter: the companion of Saint Nicholas in Dutch folklore, depicted as a blackamoor
Image: Tenorio81, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Black Peter (plural Black Peters)

  1. The companion of Saint Nicholas in Dutch folklore, depicted as a blackamoor.
    • The young princes are beaten up on the street and bullied at school; they are flustered by the Dutch Christmas custom of blackface Black Peters who birch the naughty while St. Nicholas rewards the nice.2000 December 10, Michael Pye, “Displaced Person”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Aug 2019

Black Peter meaning in Indonesian

Black Peter in Indonesian

Black Peter
Pit Hitam

Forms of Black Peter

pluralBlack Peters
alternative formBlack Pete

Origin of Black Peter

Calque of Dutch Zwarte Piet.

Questions about Black Peter

What does Black Peter mean?
Black Peter means the companion of Saint Nicholas in Dutch folklore, depicted as a blackamoor.
What is Black Peter in Indonesian?
Black Peter in Indonesian is Pit Hitam. See Black Peter meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is Black Peter?
Black Peter is a proper noun.

Words near Black Peter in the dictionary

  1. black pepper
  2. black pepper snake
  3. black pepper snakes
  4. black persimmon
  5. Black Pete
  6. Black Peter
  7. Black Peters
  8. Black Petes
  9. black phosphorus
  10. black piedra
  11. black pill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Black Peter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Black Peter.wav.

Cite this entry: “Black Peter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/black_peter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.