black belt

See also: blackbelt

English

Etymology 1

Calque of Japanese 黒帯 (kuroobi)

Noun

black belt (plural black belts)

  1. (martial arts) The highest belt colour in various martial arts.
    Synonym: dan
  2. (martial arts) Someone who has attained the black belt in martial arts.
    Synonym: dan
    Raymond is a black belt in karate.
  3. (figurative, colloquial) Great skill in any field.
  4. (management) A senior manager who is expert in one of various management systems such as Six Sigma or DMAIC and acts in a project leader or mentor role.
    • 2011, Bob Paladino, Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management, →ISBN:
      I had the good fortune of being engaged to participate as a trainer to GE Capital Corporation, where we helped to launch their now well-known and highly regarded black belt program.
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Etymology 2

From black +‎ belt, originally named after the dark soil.

Noun

black belt (plural black belts)

  1. (US, southern) A geographic region where the residents are predominantly or exclusively African-American.
    • 1992, Hanes Walton, The Native Son Presidential Candidate: The Carter Vote in Georgia, →ISBN, page 5:
      Bernard Cosman found that in Georgia, it was the black belt whites who gave Goldwater his largest percentage of the vote.
  2. (geology) A roughly crescent-shaped geological formation of dark fertile soil in the Southern United States.
    • 2014, Richard Pillsbury, editor, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, volume 2, University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 157:
      The Black Belt region, also called the Black Prairie, extends 300 miles across central Alabama and northeast Mississippi and into Tennessee. […] The dark soil for which the Black Belt was named was once famous for its richness and the abundant cotton produced in it.
    • 2018, Seth C. McKee, The Dynamics of Southern Politics: Causes and Consequences, CQ Press, →ISBN, page 9:
      The most politically powerful southerners were those who hailed from the black belt region— distinguished by its dark and fertile soil—which contained the bulk of large-scale plantation and hence the highest percentage of slaves.
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