Meanings
fustee1
plural fustees
- datedhistoricaloffensiveuncommonA person who is of 1/16 black ancestry, the child of a mustee and a white.
[…] very sly— very odd, indeed! married, eh? or run off with a mustee or fustee, you dog?—eh?
1842, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Horatio Hastings Weld, editors, The Dollar Magazine, page 2173 more examples
The several removes from a black are as follows:—The mongrel, the offspring of a black and a mulatto; the mulatto, the offspring of a black and a white; the mustee, the offspring of a mulatto and a white; the fustee, the offspring of a mustee and a white; and the dustee, the offspring of a fustee and a white. This last gradation is the connecting link between the degraded children of Ham, and the descendants of his more honoured brethren.
1844, unknown author, Antigua and the Antiguans, (Complete) a Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants From the Time of the Caribs to the Present Day, →ISBNTHE COLORED RACE IN BRITISH GUIANA. The race designated and known in the United States as colored is here known and designated as follows, viz : Black, Cob, Mulatto, Mustee, Costee, and Fustee. But for the purposes of this report it is deemed proper to […]
1893, Congressional Serial Set, page 88[…] producing such admixtures as half-breeds, mulattos, quadroons, quintroons, octoroons, and fustees, etc. There may also have been a fusion of whites and Indians, which produces the mestee or mestizos; […]
1937, Hendrik De Leeuw, Crossroads of the Buccaneers
fustee2
plural fustees
- rareA caravel or other (Spanish) ship.
1 more example
Figueros, the ambassador, has been instructed to provide you with a fustee or caravel for your passage to Barcelona. […] The fustees going to Marseilles, and being admitted into that port, king Francis redeemed for 700 ducats the Muscovite ambassador now residing at the French court, whilst Moorish and Turkish pirates are allowed shelter in French ports.
1888, Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, Preserved in the Archives at Simancas, Vienna, Brussels, and Elsewhere, pages 369 and 484
Origin
fustee · noun
Unclear. The 1911 Century Dictionary suggests it is a variation of mustee (the ending in any case matches mustee/mestee and costee, as well as dustee, which Century suggests might in turn be a variation of fustee). Perhaps compare fusty, or fustic, a yellow dye?
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
fustee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fustee
“fustee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fustee. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fustee,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fustee.
Source: fustee on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.