octoroon

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
12
Letters
8

Definition of octoroon

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (dated, historical)Someone having one-eighth black ancestry.
    “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.”
    “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.”
    “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.”
    “Grandmother Baxter was a quadroon or an octoroon, or in any case she was nearly white.”
    “That's Balthios, the octoroon great grandson of Lebron James. He doesn't like to talk about himself, but he's a good guy.”
See all 2 definitions

noun

  1. (dated, historical)Someone having one-eighth black ancestry.
    “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.”
    “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.”
    “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.”
    “Grandmother Baxter was a quadroon or an octoroon, or in any case she was nearly white.”
    “That's Balthios, the octoroon great grandson of Lebron James. He doesn't like to talk about himself, but he's a good guy.”
  2. (dated, historical)Someone having 1/64th black ancestry: the child of a quintoon and a white man.
    “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”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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

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