red man
Preserved but no longer current.
A term of the old alchemists, used in conjunction with "white woman" to express the affinity and interaction of chemicals. In the long list of terms that Surface scoffingly gives (Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, II, iii) "your red man and your white woman" are mentioned.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “red man” mean?
A term of the old alchemists, used in conjunction with "white woman" to express the affinity and interaction of chemicals. In the long list of terms that Surface scoffingly gives (Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, II, iii) "your red man and your white woman" are mentioned.
Is “red man” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.