Meanings
plural quadroons
- datedhistoricalA person considered three-fourths white, having one non-white grandparent.
2 more examples
There were slow boys and bashful boys, feeble boys and riotous boys, boys that lisped and boys that stuttered, one or two lame ones, and a merry little quadroon, who could not be taken in elsewhere, but who was welcome to the ‘Bhaer-garten’, though some people predicted that his admission would ruin the school.
1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 47, in Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 63; Chapter VIII, p. 120 https://archive.org/details/capricornianovel00herb Diana was a black quadroon, her father being a blackfellow. He was the father of four quadroons who were regarded as half-castes because the lighter part of their mother's blood was Asiatic, and he was only too well aware of what their future would be should he desert them.
- datedhistoricalnot comparableOf or related to quadroons.
The quadroon girl is sold at the auction-stand, the drunkard nods by the bar-room stove, […]
1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 402 more examples
Before them, with her face upraised, In timid attitude, Like one half curious, half amazed, A Quadroon maiden stood.
1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Quadroon Girl"What need you getting drunk, then, and cutting up, Prue?" said a spruce quadroon chambermaid, dangling, as she spoke, a pair of coral ear-drops.
1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XVII, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC
Origin
- Latinquartus“one-fourth”
- Spanishcuarterón“¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo”
- Englishquadroon
From Spanish cuarterón (“¾ white, a child of a European and a mestizo”), from cuarto (“one-fourth”) + -on (“-oon: forming related nouns”), from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Doublet of cuarteron.
More words from Spanish, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian квартерон
- квартерон (kvarteron)three fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Catalan quarteró, quarterona
- quarteróthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
- quarteronathree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Danish kvadron
- kvadronthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Dutch quarterone, quadrone
- quarteronethree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
- quadronethree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
French quarteron
- quarteronthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
German Quarterone, Quarteronin
- Quarteronethree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
- Quarteroninthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Hungarian negyedvér
- negyedvérthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Polish Mulat, Mulatka
- Mulatthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
- Mulatkathree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Spanish cuarterón, cuarterona
- cuarterónthree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
- cuarteronathree fourths Caucasian and one fourth African in descent
Cite this entry
quadroon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quadroon
“quadroon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quadroon. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quadroon,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quadroon.
Source: quadroon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.