black market

• black-market (attributive use)

Ca. 1930, probably a calque of German Schwarzmarkt, which is attested from the 1910s. Compare Schwärzer (“smuggler”, 18th c.).

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black market (plural black markets)

1. Trade that is in violation of restrictions, rationing, or price controls.
   • 2004, George Carlin, “THE FANATICS WILL WIN”, in When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?‎, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, page 135:

     Peace and order will not be tolerated. Start saving your cash for the black market, folks, you're gonna need it.

   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎:

     In District 12, a dirt-poor coal-mining community that looks like a Dorothea Lange photograph, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) quietly rebels against the system by hunting game in a forbidden area with her friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and trading it on the black market.

   • 2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Increasing numbers of people are turning to a growing black market for food to supplement their diets as prices rocket, experts have said.

2. (collective) The people who engage in such trade, or that sector of the economy.

• black marketeer

• black economy

• black market on Wikipedia.Wikipedia