Meaning & use
quadroon
A dated and offensive term, historically used in the Americas, for a person regarded as having one Black grandparent.
See it in a sentence
Nineteenth-century legal records used the term quadroon to enforce discriminatory racial classifications.
Historians study the quadroon balls of old New Orleans as evidence of a rigid racial hierarchy.
A note on using this word
This word belongs to a historical system of racial classification and is now considered offensive and obsolete outside historical discussion.
Words with a similar meaning
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