octoroon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish octorón, compare quadroon from cuarterón (“quadroon”).

Noun

octoroon (plural octoroons)

1. (dated or historical) Someone having one-eighth black ancestry.
   • 1840, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. XIII:

     Yet the least drop of Spanish blood, if it be only of quadroon or octoroon, is sufficient to raise them from the rank of slaves, and entitle them to a suit of clothes—boots, hat, cloak, spurs, long knife, and all complete, though coarse and dirty as may be,—and to call themselves Españolos, and to hold property, if they can get any.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, ch. XVIII:

     There would have been no legal barrier to their union; there would have been no frightful menace to white supremacy in the marriage of the negro and the octoroon: the drop of dark blood bridged the chasm.

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, The Wisdom of Father Brown, chapter 9:

     I dare say he has some Italians with him, but our amiable friends are not Italians. They are octoroons and African half-bloods of various shades, but I fear we English think all foreigners are much the same so long as they are dark and dirty.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 10, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‎^[1], New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 50:

     Grandmother Baxter was a quadroon or an octoroon, or in any case she was nearly white.

   • 2008, Tales of Game's Studios, quoting Charles Barkley, Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Tales of Game's Studios:

     That's Balthios, the octoroon great grandson of Lebron James. He doesn't like to talk about himself, but he's a good guy.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:octoroon.
2. (dated or historical) Someone having 1/64th black ancestry: the child of a quintoon and a white man.
   • 2005, Donald Harman Akenson, Irish History of Civilization‎^[2], page 353:

     Quintoon: child of mustiphini and white male
     Unspeakable: child of mustiphini and white woman
     Octoroon: child of quintoon and white man
     Unspeakable: child of quintoon and white woman

Alternative forms

• octaroon

Synonyms

• mustee

Coordinate terms

• (person of mixed race): see list in mulatto

See also

• quadroon
• quintroon
• terceroon