Black is White

Beaten black and blue. So that the skin is black and blue with the marks of the beating.

I must have it in black and white, i.e. in plain writing; the paper being white and the ink black.

To say black’s his eye, i.e. to vituperate, to blame. The expression, Black’s the white of his eye, is a modern corruption. To say the eye is black or evil, is to accuse a person of an evil heart or great ignorance. The Latin niger also meant evil. (See Black Prince.)

“A fool may do all things, and no man say black’s his eye.”—The Tell Tale.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.