English
quadroon
Quadroon comes from Spanish cuarterón ‘¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo’, from cuarto ‘one-fourth’, and ultimately from Latin quartus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquartus1‘one-fourth’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentcuarto1‘one-fourth’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentcuarterón1‘¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo’
- Englishearliest quotation 1842quadroon1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English quadroon
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Before them, with her face upraised, In timid attitude,…”.
Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquartusWiktionary, English quadroon‘one-fourth’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentcuartoWiktionary, English quadroon‘one-fourth’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentcuarterónWiktionary, English quadroon‘¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo’
- Englishearliest quotation 1842quadroonWiktionary, English quadroon. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Before them, with her face upraised, In timid attitude,…”
Linked words
through Latin quartus ‘one-fourth’
Today it means
noun A person considered three-fourths white, having one non-white grandparent.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “quadroon”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin quartus / quadroon