Doug Weller Wrote:
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> I'm trying to find out if we know the earliest use
> of the term white to refer to Europeans. Anyone
> know?
> Thanks
>
> Doug Weller


Doug, the term was first used BY Whites to refer to themselves. Most people around the world DIDN'T use the term, and tended to come up with alternate terminology ("big noses", "red men".... yes, Whites were called "red men" by various African tribes, on account of the florid complexion the early german/british explorers had AND the color that Whites turned after a bit too much UV exposure).

American Indians only used the term (or variants thereof) AFTER being told to do so by Whites. On our own, we were more likely to come up with terms like "Black Robes" for French (on account of the garb worn by Jesuits), "Long Knives" or "Blue coats" for U.S. soldiers, etc.

(Bluntly, MOST people around the world are fairly homogenous when it comes to coloring, and neighbors differed MORE by culture than they did by coloring, so coloring wasn't used as a distinction. It was only y'all polychromatic White folk who hit on that strange little concept).

Eh, at I guess, I'd suggest a period of MAJOR Afican-European contact? Romans weren't all that racially minded from what I've heard (equal opportunity exploiters), & they'd lump ALL barbarians together vs themselves rather thanlikely more of a religious & cultural shock than a racial one.... so what about the Portuguese expansion down the African coast, when Europeans first started enslaving Africans in large numbers? Between kicking the Moors out of Iberia at about that time (enslaving huge numbers of prisoners in the process, and revitalizing the previously dying out tradition of European slavery), meeting up with LOTS of really dark folk whom they enslaved (vs the lighter skinned North Africans they were more used to), and soon meeting up with lots of slightly darker skinned folk to exploit in the Americas & then Asia & the Pacific, this seems like the logical time for Whites to develop a color based differentiation scheme with themselves ("White") vs all others ("non-white").

Kenuchelover.