blackwork

English

Queen Elizabeth I wearing blackwork
modern blackwork designs

Etymology

black + work

Noun

blackwork (uncountable)

  1. (sewing) A form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched on even-weave fabric with a twisted thread.
  2. (obsolete) Work connected with funerals, as an undertaker's assistant or a maker of mourning clothes, etc.
    • 2016, Haewon Hwang, London's Underground Spaces:
      In Mary Barton (1848), the seamstress sewing black mourning clothes is referred to as being engaged in 'blackwork', while the manufacturing company, the Courtaulds, held a monopoly on crapes from the onset of funeral practices []

See also

References

  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
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