quadroon
English edit
Etymology edit
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.
Noun edit
quadroon (plural quadroons)
- (dated, chiefly historical) A person considered three-fourths white, having one non-white grandparent.
- 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 47, in Little Women: […], part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
- There were slow boys and bashful boys, feeble boys and riotous boys, boys that lisped and boys that stuttered, one or two lame ones, and a merry little quadroon, who could not be taken in elsewhere, but who was welcome to the ‘Bhaer-garten’, though some people predicted that his admission would ruin the school.
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 63; Chapter VIII, p. 120 [1]
- Diana was a black quadroon, her father being a blackfellow.
He was the father of four quadroons who were regarded as half-castes because the lighter part of their mother's blood was Asiatic, and he was only too well aware of what their future would be should he desert them.
- Diana was a black quadroon, her father being a blackfellow.
Usage notes edit
In Latin America, originally concerned with people considered one-fourth Native American but, in US contexts, chiefly used with regard to people considered one-fourth black. In Australia, chiefly used for those regarded as one-fourth aboriginal.
Coordinate terms edit
- (person of mixed race): See mulatto
- quarter-caste
Adjective edit
quadroon (not comparable)
- (dated, chiefly historical) Of or related to quadroons.
- 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Quadroon Girl:
- Before them, with her face upraised,
In timid attitude,
Like one half curious, half amazed,
A Quadroon maiden stood.
- 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XVII, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:
- "What need you getting drunk, then, and cutting up, Prue?" said a spruce quadroon chambermaid, dangling, as she spoke, a pair of coral ear-drops.
- 1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 40:
- The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove, […]
Translations edit
three fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
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