octoroon

American

[ok-tuh-roon] / ˌɒk təˈrun /

noun

Older Use: Offensive.

a person having one-eighth Black ancestry, with one Black great-grandparent; the offspring of a quadroon and a white person.

octoroon British

/ ˌɒktəˈruːn /

noun

a person having one quadroon and one White parent and therefore having one-eighth Black blood Compare quadroon

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of octoroon

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; octo- + (quad)roon

Compare meaning

How does octoroon compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

octoroon vs. mulatto

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

One of those, George Crumb’s “Ancient Voices of Children,” was written over 50 years ago; the other, Wynton Marsalis’s quartet “At the Octoroon Balls,” in 1995.

From New York Times • Oct. 20, 2021

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a playwright whose works like An Octoroon and Appropriate have uniquely tackled issues of race in America and earned critical acclaim.

From Time • Sep. 22, 2016

Monday: District-born playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins won an Obie Award in 2014 for "An Octoroon," which opens at Woolly Mammoth on Memorial Day.

From Washington Post • May 26, 2016

The other finalists were "An Octoroon" by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, "Indecent" by Paula Vogel, "Sweat" by Lynn Nottage and "Vietgone" by Qui Nguyen.

From US News • Feb. 22, 2016

There was the fire in Theatre Royal, after the play of the "Octoroon."

From Some Reminiscences of old Victoria by Fawcett, Edgar

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023