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Ron.M -> RE: cante for dance classe performances (Jul. 15 2003 16:57:22)
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That's interesting Andy.
I know you are interested in family history etc and you have traced your surname to "Black Heart", however have you ever thought it could be a corruption of "Blaggard"?
Blackard is a common name in the UK also.
Here's something I found for your info:-
"The spelling reproduces the pronunciation of black guard or blackguard, and the latter is the way in which it should normally be spelt. Modern dictionaries define it as "scoundrel" or something similar. This is the first definition too of Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (I have the third edition, 1949, in front of me). He continues: "At first this was a collective noun: in the 16th and 17th centuries, the scullions of a great house; from the later 16th century, the Devil's body-guard; in the 17th century, the camp-followers; in the 18th century, a body of attendants of black dress, race or character, or the underworld, esp the shoe-blacking portion thereof." Partridge points for further discussion of "this interesting word" to the SOD (his abbreviation for the Shorter Oxford Dictionary) and the OED itself. Blaggard, so far as I can see, nowhere appears. "
Ron
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