miscegenation

[ mi-sej-uh-ney-shuhn, mis-i-juh- ]

noun

1. marriage or cohabitation between two people from different racial groups, especially, in the U.S., between a Black person and a white person:

   In 1967 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state laws prohibiting miscegenation were unconstitutional.

2. sexual relations between two people from different racial backgrounds resulting in the conception of a mixed-race child.

miscegenation

/ ˌmɪsɪdʒɪˈneɪʃən; ˌmɪsɪdʒɪˈnɛtɪk /

noun

1. interbreeding of races, esp where differences of pigmentation are involved

Derived Forms

• miscegenetic, adjective

Other Words From

• mis·ce·ge·net·ic [mis-i-j, uh, -, net, -ik, mi-sej-, uh, -], adjective
• anti·misce·ge·nation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of miscegenation¹

Irregular formation from Latin miscē(re) “to mix” + Latin gen(us) “race, stock, species” + English -ation noun suffix; allegedly coined by U.S. journalist David Goodman Croly (1829–89) in a pamphlet published anonymously in 1864; -ation

Word History and Origins

Origin of miscegenation¹

C19: from Latin miscēre to mingle + genus race

Example Sentences

Indeed, by the 1930s, Hollywood’s Hays Code included among its don’ts miscegenation.

From Los Angeles Times

Raving about the horrors of miscegenation only confirms the Harris campaign's characterization of Trump as "old and quite weird," so it's no surprise that other Republicans are scurrying away from his remarks.

From Salon

But Hanania also had a robust secret career as "Richard Hoste," who wrote for white nationalist websites, where he expressed a belief that Black people are intellectually inferior, obsessed over "miscegenation," and advocated for forced sterilization of those he considered "low IQ."

From Salon

I had been reading a book called "The Case For Loving," which was about the fight to decriminalize marriages between people of different races, a case which — given that I am married to a man of Japanese descent, one whose parents, to even get married, had had to cross the Alabama state line due to the strictness of Mississippi's miscegenation laws — personally impacts me.

From Salon

But Awoye Timpo’s impassioned production was also about the miscegenation of America itself, a marriage still far from happy more than 100 years later.

From New York Times