| 释义 |
quadroon|kwəˈdruːn|
Forms: α. 8 quarteron, (9 -oon), quatron, 8–9 -eron, 9 -roon. β. 8 quaderoon, 9 quadroon.
[ad. Sp. cuarteron (hence F. quarteron), f. cuarto fourth, quarter; the mod. form may be due to assoc. with other words in quadr-.]
1. a. One who is the offspring of a white person and a mulatto; one who has a quarter of Negro blood. b. rarely. One who is fourth in descent from a Negro, one of the parents in each generation being white.
In early Sp. use chiefly applied to the offspring of a white and a mestizo, or half-breed Indian. When it is used to denote one who is fourth in descent from a Negro, the previous stage is called a terceron: see the transl. of Juan and Ulloa's Voyage (1772) I. 30, and cf. quintroon.
α1707Sloane Jamaica I. p. xlvi, The inhabitants of Jamaica are for the most part Europeans..who are the Masters, and Indians, Negros, Mulatos, Alcatrazes, Mestises, Quarterons, &c. who are the Slaves. 1793Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 98 Castaing is described as a small dark mulatto, and La Chaise as a Quateron. 1819W. Lawrence Lect. Physiol. Zool. 295 Europeans and Tercerons produce Quarterons or Quadroons. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. v. iv, Your pale-white Creoles..and your yellow Quarteroons. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xiii. 29 The least drop of Spanish blood, if it be only of quatroon or octoon.
β1796Stedman Surinam I. 296 The Samboe dark, and the Mulatto brown, The Mæsti fair, the well-limbed Quaderoon. 1819[see α]. 1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 228 The progeny of a white and a negro is a mulatto, or half and half—of a white and mulatto, a quadroon, or one quarter black. 1880Ouida Moths I. 178 That brute goes with a quadroon to a restaurant.
Comb.1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. xxi. (1891) 292 How could he ever come to fancy such a quadroon-looking thing as that?
c. transf. Applied to the offspring resulting from similar admixture of blood in the case of other races, or from crossing in the case of animals or plants.
1811Southey in Q. Rev. VI. 346 Whether a man were a half-new Christian, or a quateron, or a half-quateron..the Hebrew leaven was in the blood. 1879tr. De Quatrefages Hum. Spec. 72 Koelreuter artificially fertilised hybrid flowers..and thus obtained a vegetable quadroon. 1892Daily News 17 June 5/3 The offspring of these crosses [of rabbits] did not in any instance produce a ‘quadroon’.
2. attrib. or as adj. quadroon ball; quadroon black, the offspring of a pure Negro and a quadroon (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1897).
1748Earthquake Peru iii. 240 Quatron Indians, born of Whites and Mestizos. Ibid., Quatron Negroes, born of Whites and Mulattos. 1796Stedman Surinam I. vi. 126 A young and beautiful Quadroon girl. Ibid. II. xviii. 56 A female quaderoon slave. 1805J. F. Watson in Amer. Pioneer (1843) II. 236 These colored women have..their weekly balls, (called quartroon balls) at which none but white gentlemen attend. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 14 A marriage between a white planter and a quadroon girl. 1880G. W. Cable Grandissimes iii. 19, I saw the same old man, at a quadroon ball a few years ago. 1893F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 60 A pretty..mulatto, or rather quadroon girl. 1948Chicago Tribune (Grafic Mag.) 8 Feb. 18/3 Most notorious of the carnival affairs, was the Quadroon ball, given by the young men of the town for their mistresses and friends. |