Mestee

Meanings

Noun

• A mixed race person, especially if mostly white in ancestry, appearance and culture.
• A member of an old mixed race group, particularly those groups which identify more with their white ancestry than with their black or Native American ancestry, like the Melungeons and a person referred to as a brass ankle.
• A person who is mostly white and less than one eighth black.
• In the West Indies, a person who is one eighth black (an octoroon).

Adjective

• Of mixed race people, especially if mostly white in ancestry, appearance and culture.
• Of an old mixed race group, particularly those groups which identify more with their white ancestry than with their black or Native American ancestry.

Origin

• Usually from Middle French mestis ("a person of mixed race"), from Latin mixtus (Modern French métis). Cognate with metis and Spanish mestizo. Sometimes from Colonial Louisiana French mestif "child of an Octoroon and a white person" (15/16 white, 1/16 black), from Old French mestif