By "a black coffee", do you mean drip/filter coffee? Because a caffe lungo is also a black coffee, for example

An Americano isn't coffee.

It's a watered down espresso.

The only reason it exists is because Americans visiting Europe would ask for coffee, and many euro coffee shops only had espresso, so they just added hot water to espresso and that was close enough for the tourists.

At least, that was what I heard.

As an American living in Europe for over a decade, Americano is the default I have to drink when I'm out unless I go to a hipster coffee shop. The main reason being practically no one does filter coffee, but almost every restaurant has an espresso machine.

And it tastes like cigarettes because even though every restaurant has an espresso machine it doesn't mean they clean it, and doesn't mean their staff knows how to use it properly. Water temps too high, too much coffee grounds, over compressed, lowest quality beans. Fucking everywhere. It's awful.

For whatever reason, at the time Italian coffee names became so popular 15 or so years ago, coffee became either super intense or a dessert. I'm old and I just want a mild coffee like I used to drink before the fashion, not a super strong one. Call me a lightweight if you want, I don't take pride in doing stimmulants.

an Americano is not a black coffee.

It is however, coffee that is black,

Hold on now, I'm not getting this. What meaning could "black coffee" possibly have other than a coffee that is black?