black swan

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• Received-Pronunciation: /blæk ˈswɒn/
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• General-American: /blæk ˈswɑn/
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• General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -ɒn
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From Middle English blak swan, calqued from a Latin quotation from Satire VI (written late 1st century – early 2nd century B.C.E.) of the Roman poet Juvenal: “Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno [a bird as rare upon the earth as a black swan]!”. Equivalent to black + swan. Sense 2.1 (“something believed impossible or not to exist”) is from the fact that all swans were thought to have white plumage until black swans were discovered in Australia in the 17th century by Dutch explorers. Sense 2.2 (“rare and hard-to-predict event”) was popularized by the Lebanese-American author Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) in his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007): see the quotation.

88 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Afrikaans: swartswaan — Cygnus atratus
• Albanian: mjellma e zezë — Cygnus atratus
• Arabic: تَمّ أَسْوَد (tamm ʔaswad) — Cygnus atratus
• Armenian: սեւ կարապ (sew karap) — Cygnus atratus
• Azerbaijani: qara qu quşu — Cygnus atratus
• Basque: beltxarga beltz — Cygnus atratus
• Belarusian: чорны лебедзь (čórny ljebjedzʹ) — Cygnus atratus
• Bengali: কালো রাজহাঁস (kalō rajohãs) — Cygnus atratus
• Breton: alarc'h du — Cygnus atratus
• Bulgarian: че́рен ле́бед (čéren lébed) — Cygnus atratus
• Burmese: ငန်းနက် (ngan:nak) — Cygnus atratus
• Catalan: cigne negre — Cygnus atratus
• Chinese Mandarin: 黑天鵝 /黑天鹅 (hēitiān'é) — Cygnus atratus
• East Circassian: къыуфӏыцӏэ (qəwufʼəcʼɛ) — Cygnus atratus
• Czech: labuť černá — Cygnus atratus
• Danish: sortsvane — Cygnus atratus
• Dutch: zwarte zwaan — Cygnus atratus
• Esperanto: nigra cigno — Cygnus atratus
• Estonian: mustluik — Cygnus atratus
• Faroese: svartisvanur — Cygnus atratus
• Finnish: mustajoutsen — Cygnus atratus
• French: cygne noir — Cygnus atratus
• West-Frisian: swarte swan — Cygnus atratus
• Galician: cisne negro — Cygnus atratus
• German: Trauerschwan — Cygnus atratus
• Greek: μαύρος κύκνος (mávros kýknos) — Cygnus atratus
• Hebrew: ברבור שחור — Cygnus atratus
• Hindi: काला हंस (kālā hans) — Cygnus atratus
• Hungarian: fekete hattyú — Cygnus atratus
• Icelandic: svartsvanur — Cygnus atratus
• Indonesian: angsa hitam — Cygnus atratus
• Irish: eala dhubh — Cygnus atratus
• Italian: cigno nero — Cygnus atratus
• Japanese: 黒鳥 — Cygnus atratus
• Kannada: ಕಪ್ಪು ಹಂಸ (kappu haṃsa) — Cygnus atratus
• Korean: 흑고니 (heukgoni) — Cygnus atratus
• Kumyk: къара къув (qara quw) — Cygnus atratus
• Latvian: melnais gulbis — Cygnus atratus
• Lithuanian: juodoji gulbė — Cygnus atratus
• Macedonian: црн лебед (crn lebed) — Cygnus atratus
• Malay: joyinah hitam — Cygnus atratus
• Malayalam: കറുത്ത അരയന്നം (kaṟutta arayannaṁ) — Cygnus atratus
• Western Mari: шим йӱксӹ (šim jüksÿ) — Cygnus atratus
• Navajo: dééshzhiin — Cygnus atratus
• Norwegian Bokmål: svartsvane — Cygnus atratus
• Norwegian Nynorsk: svartsvane — Cygnus atratus
• Nyunga: maali — Cygnus atratus
• Occitan: cicne negre — Cygnus atratus
• Persian: قوی سیاه (qu-ye siyâh) — Cygnus atratus
• Picard: chin·nhe nòre — Cygnus atratus
• Polish: łabędź czarny — Cygnus atratus
• Portuguese: cisne-negro — Cygnus atratus
• Punjabi: کالا ہنس (qu-ye siyâh) — Cygnus atratus
• Romanian: lebădă neagră — Cygnus atratus
• Russian: чёрный ле́бедь (čórnyj lébedʹ) — Cygnus atratus
• Northern Sami: čáhppesnjukča — Cygnus atratus
• Sardinian: sìsini nieddu — Cygnus atratus
• Scottish Gaelic: eala dhubh — Cygnus atratus
• Serbo-Croatian: цр̑нӣ ла̏бӯд — Cygnus atratus
• Serbo-Croatian: cȓnī lȁbūd — Cygnus atratus
• Slovak: labuť čierna — Cygnus atratus
• Slovene: črni labod — Cygnus atratus
• Spanish: cisne negro — Cygnus atratus
• Swedish: svart svan — Cygnus atratus
• Tamil: கறுப்பு அன்னம் (kaṟuppu aṉṉam) — Cygnus atratus
• Thai: หงส์ดํา — Cygnus atratus
• Turkish: kara kuğu — Cygnus atratus
• Ottoman Turkish: قره قوغو (kara kuğu) — Cygnus atratus
• Udmurt: сьӧд юсь (śöd juś) — Cygnus atratus
• Ukrainian: чорний лебідь (čornyj lebidʹ) — Cygnus atratus
• Ukrainian: лебідь чорний (lebidʹ čornyj) — Cygnus atratus
• Vietnamese: thiên nga đen — Cygnus atratus
• Wathaurong: kunawarr — Cygnus atratus
• Welsh: alarch du — Cygnus atratus
• Woiwurrung: gannawarra — Cygnus atratus
• Chinese Mandarin: 黑天鵝 /黑天鹅 (hēitiān'é) — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Finnish: musta joutsen — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• French: cygne noir — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Italian: mosca bianca — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Latin: rāra avis — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Macedonian: црн лебед (crn lebed) — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Norwegian Bokmål: sort svane — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Polish: czarny łabędź — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Romanian: leprechaun — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Spanish: mirlo blanco — something believed impossible or not to exist, especially if an example is subsequently found
• Chinese Mandarin: 黑天鵝 /黑天鹅 (hēitiān'é) — rare and hard-to-predict event with major consequences
• Finnish: musta joutsen — rare and hard-to-predict event with major consequences
• Polish: czarny łabędź — rare and hard-to-predict event with major consequences