Darkie is a very offensive word for a Black person. Do not use it. It was built from dark plus a small, almost cute ending, which is part of why it is so ugly: it turns someone’s skin into a nickname. Older British and Australian English used it, sometimes as if it were casual or even “friendly”. That was never all right, and it is not all right now. There is no polite version, no joking version, and no “I didn’t mean it that way” version that makes it safe. If you meet it in an old book, film, or song, read it as a racist insult from that time, not as a word you can try out. Though actually, the harm is not only in the dictionary meaning. The word belongs to a habit of talking about Black people as a colour joke. Leave it in the past, and if you need to talk about race, use the words people use for themselves, such as Black.

對黑人極冒犯的種族歧視稱呼。不要用。