Quintroon

From Free net encyclopedia

A quintroon is the offspring of an octoroon and a white parent, having ancestry that is fifteen-sixteenths white and one-sixteenth black. This term, like others in the same series (such as octoroon and quadroon), is considered obsolete and is no longer in general use.

The prefix quint- is apparently intended to mean fifth, as in "fifth-generation," but this only works if you begin counting with the great-great-grandparent and this is not how 'generations' are generally named (i.e. children of immigrants are considered 'first generation', not their parents). A more accurate label was hexadecaroon (conveying the essence of "one-sixteenth"), but the latter term was used far less often than quintroon.

See also one-drop theory.