Old English Africanas (plural) "native or inhabitant of Africa," from Latin Africanus (adj.) "of Africa, African," from Africa (see Africa). Used of white residents of Africa from 1815. Used of black residents of the U.S. from 18c., when it especially meant "one brought from Africa" and sometimes was contrasted to native-born Negro. As an adjective by 1560s, "pertaining to Africa or Africans" (Old English had Africanisc); from 1722 as "of or pertaining to black Americans."
there are isolated instances from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but the modern use is a re-invention first attested 1969 (in reference to the African-American Teachers Association) which became the preferred term in some circles for "U.S. black" (noun or adjective) by the late 1980s. See African + American. Mencken, 1921, reports Aframerican "is now very commonly used in the Negro press." Afro-American is attested in 1853, in freemen's publications in Canada. Africo-American (1817 as a noun, 1826 as an adjective) was common in abolitionist and colonization society writings.
West African type of loose shirt, 1969, a word of West African origin.
word-forming element meaning "African," from Latin Afr-, stem of Afer, Afri "African" (noun and adjective; see Africa), or directly from African.
large, flat bean from an African shrub, 1846, from some African word.
the old city or citadel of a North African city, 1738, from French casbah, from North African Arabic dialect kasba "fortress."
large tropical African tree (later transplanted and naturalized in the East and West Indies), 1630s, from Medieval Latin bahobab (1590s), apparently from a central African language.
