quadroon

[kwo-droon]

noun Older Use: Offensive.

a person having one-fourth black ancestry, with one black grandparent; the offspring of a mulatto and a white person.

Compare octoroon.

Origin of quadroon

1640–50; alteration of Spanish cuarterón, derivative of cuarto fourth < Latin quartus; see -oon

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for quadroon

Historical Examples of quadroon

He turned his glance to the quadroon; she understood it; the patient was seriously ill.
Dr. Sevier
George W. Cable
He was probably regarded as a quadroon who had been accepted by the white race.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917
Various
I saw the Quadroon approach this with silent tread, as if meditating some design.
The Quadroon
Mayne Reid
I was satisfied that the disappearance of the quadroon would be at once attributed to me.
The Quadroon
Mayne Reid
My conversation was with the Creole, my thoughts dwelt upon the Quadroon.
The Quadroon
Mayne Reid

British Dictionary definitions for quadroon

quadroon

noun

the offspring of a Mulatto and a White person; a person who is one-quarter Black

Word Origin for quadroon

C18: from Spanish cuarterón, from cuarto quarter, from Latin quartus

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

Word Origin and History for quadroon

1707, "offspring of a white and a mulatto," from Spanish cuarteron (used chiefly of the offspring of a European and a mestizo), literally "one who has a fourth" (Negro blood), from cuarto "fourth," from Latin quartus (see quart), so called because he or she has one quarter African blood. Altered by influence of words in quadr-. There also was some use in 19c. of quintroon (from Spanish quinteron) "one who is fifth in descent from a Negro; one who has one-sixteenth Negro blood."