octoroon

[ ok-tuh-roon ]

noun

, Older Use: Offensive.

1. a person having one-eighth Black ancestry, with one Black great-grandparent; the offspring of a quadroon and a white person.

octoroon

/ ˌɒktəˈruːn /

noun

1. a person having one quadroon and one White parent and therefore having one-eighth Black blood Compare quadroon

Word History and Origins

Origin of octoroon¹

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; octo- + (quad)roon

Word History and Origins

Origin of octoroon¹

C19: octo- + -roon as in quadroon

Example Sentences

George doesn’t know at first that Zoe is an octoroon, meaning she’s 1/8th Black, but he refuses to let miscegenation law stand in the way of his heart’s desire.

From Los Angeles Times

Among mixed bloods, one never made the mistake of calling an octoroon a quadroon or a quadroon a mulatto, although all mixed bloods were loosely called mulattoes.

From Literature

She recalled a comedy writer who told her that her and Anderson’s children were “quadroons or octoroons” — “because people think that being aggressive is funny, I guess.”

From New York Times

An octoroon woman in Bastrop had passed and married a white farmer.

From Literature

The first one labeled him as “white,” while the second, which his mother demanded as a corrective, put him down as “octoroon.”

From New York Times