black art n.

[common] A collection of arcane, unpublished, and (by implication) mostly ad-hoc techniques developed for a particular application or systems area (compare black magic). VLSI design and compiler code optimization were (in their beginnings) considered classic examples of black art; as theory developed they became deep magic, and once standard textbooks had been written, became merely heavy wizardry. The huge proliferation of formal and informal channels for spreading around new computer-related technologies during the last twenty years has made both the term `black art' and what it describes less common than formerly. See also voodoo programming.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Black Art, exorcism, the alleged ability to expel evil spirits from haunted houses or from persons bewitched; necromancy, or anything similar.

Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.

Black" art` (?).

The art practiced by conjurers and witches; necromancy; conjuration; magic.

⇒ This name was given in the Middle Ages to necromancy, under the idea that the latter term was derived from niger black, instead of nekro`s, a dead person, and mantei`a, divination.

Wright.

© Webster 1913.