mulatto

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese and/or Spanish mulato (“of mixed breed, young mule”), from mulo (“mule”), from Latin mūlus (“mule”). Perhaps an allusion to the hybrid origin of mules.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /muˈlɑtoʊ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /m(j)ʊˈlætəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːtəʊ, -ætəʊ

Noun

mulatto (plural mulattoes or mulattos)

1. (historical, now sometimes derogatory) A person of mixed black and white descent, especially a person with one black and one white parent or two mulatto parents.

   Synonyms: mestizo, metis

   • 1949, Edward Nicholas, The hours and the ages: a sequence of Americans, page 77:

     Respectable folk who did not want trouble stayed withindoors; but young apprentices were abroad in force; Negroes and mulattoes; rope- makers and laborers from along the waterfront; and sailors hastening ashore from the ships […]

   • 2004, Arthur Herzog, Jr, Icetopia, page 78:

     The supermodelesque mulatto woman licked her lips and smiled invitingly.

   • 2005, Jeffrey M. Shumway, The Case of the Ugly Suitor & Other Histories of Love, Gender, & Nation in Buenos Aires, 1776-1870:

     The official mouthpiece of the Rosas government, La Gaceta Mercantil, praised Afro-Argentines as “valiant defenders of liberty who have won fame and glory in a hundred battles,” adding that “General Rosas so appreciates the mulattos and morenos that he has no objection to seating them at his table and eating with them.”
     In other respects, however, the persistence of racism against Afro-Argentines, Indians, and gauchos showed regrettable continuities with the colonial past.

See also

• brown
• browning
• Coloured
• half-breed
• half blood
• maroon
• mixed-race
• Mischling
• red nigger

References

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muˈlat.to/
• Rhymes: -atto
• Hyphenation: mu‧làt‧to

Adjective

mulatto (feminine mulatta, masculine plural mulatti, feminine plural mulatte)

1. (relational) mulatto

Noun

mulatto m (plural mulatti, feminine mulatta)

1. mulatto

Anagrams

• multato