black art

English

Noun

black art (plural black arts)

  1. (often in the plural) A practice such as witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, or black magic.
    dabbling in the black arts
    In 1690s Salem, anyone was at mortal risk of being accused of practicing the black arts.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 175:
      For even the enchantresses Circe and Medea could not, by their black arts, prevent the unfaithfulness of Odysseus and Jason.
    • 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 30:
      As a parish priest in England he had dabbled in the black arts, seduced a number of his congregation from their faith and finally celebrated the Black Mass.
  2. (figuratively, by extension) A process that is esoteric or difficult to master.
    Operating a hand card punch was something of a black art.
    • 2022 November 16, Graham Eccles, “The Rest Day Working saga...”, in RAIL, number 970, page 32:
      Traincrew management has always been a bit of a black art, rather than a science. The present traincrew difficulties that beset the UK rail industry are neither new nor were they unforeseeable.

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