quadroon
/kwɑːˈdɹuːn/ noun, adjective
Forms quadroons
- noun (dated, chiefly historical) A person considered three-fourths white, having one non-white grandparent.
- adjective (dated, chiefly historical) Of or related to quadroons.
Etymology
From Spanish cuarterón (“¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo”), from cuarto (“one-fourth”) + -on (“-oon: forming related nouns”), from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Doublet of cuarteron.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The offspring of a mulatto and a white person; a person quarter-blooded. [Written also quarteron, quarteroon, and quateron.]
Etymology [F. quarteron, or Sp. cuarteron. See Quarter a fourth part, and cf. Quarteron.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quadroon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details