shvartze
/ˈʃvɑɹtsə/
shvartze noun: a person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.
Noun
shvartze (plural shvartze or shvartzes)
- A person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.
- […] she irons better even than the schvartze,1969, Philip Roth, “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met”, in Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 12
- From the rabbi to the “shvartze,” the black man who turned on the synagogue’s lights on Saturdays, he was liked.1975, Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, New York: Saturday Review Press / E. P. Dutton & Co., p. 6
Adjective
shvartze (not comparable)
- Of sub-Saharan African descent; of or pertaining to people of sub-Saharan African descent; black.
- There was a shvartze wedding next door and something else too . . . some anniversary party.1983, Richard Price, The Breaks, New York: Simon & Schuster, Part 1, p. 98
- Ordinarily Boss Crump and his entourage […] like to tour the individual shops, receiving the tributes his shvartze valet shleps out to a waiting limousine.2012, Steve Stern, “The Tale of a Kite” in The Book of Mischief, Minneapolis: Graywolf Fress, p. 9
Forms of shvartze
| plural | shvartze |
|---|---|
| plural | shvartzes |
| alternative form | shvartza |
| alternative form | shvartsa |
| alternative form | shvartse |
| alternative form | schvartza |
| alternative form | schvartze |
| alternative form | schwartza |
| alternative form | schwartze |
| alternative form | shvartzer |
Origin of shvartze
Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצע (shvartse), feminine and plural form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”). The generalization of the form was likely reinforced by the frequent use referring to black female domestic workers, although forms in -e/-a and -er would have merged in any case in a non-rhotic accent such as New York English. The context of domestic workers may also be that in which the word received a derogatory connotation, which of course it did not originally have (cf. German Schwarzer, the politically correct term for “black person”). Doublet of swart.
Questions about shvartze
- What does shvartze mean?
- Shvartze means a person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.
- What part of speech is shvartze?
- Shvartze can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce shvartze?
- Shvartze is pronounced /ˈʃvɑɹtsə/.
- What is the plural of shvartze?
- The plural of shvartze is shvartze.
Words near shvartze in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shvartze (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.
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Cite this entry: “shvartze.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shvartze. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.