Comment on My word game had some weird archaic racist word as one of the answers.

hddsx@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Someone with mixed African and European ancestry.

  Etymologically it’s rather nasty: the word was coined in either Spanish or Portuguese as “mulato”, as a reference to mules (“mula” - horse x donkey hybrid).

  In Portuguese it seems to me that this association faded away. However, I’m going to take a guess and say that the word is probably a slur in English, so not something that you want to use for its meaning.

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  • eager_eagle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m a native pt speaker and I had never thought of the word as slur. I remember it being commonly said on TV, music, and written on newspapers.

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah, in Portuguese it is not a big deal. (I’m also a native speaker.) Some people do complain about it, but it’s typically based on etymology, not current usage.

      Dunno how others interpret it but for me “mestiço” isn’t quite an alternative, it’s more like a hyperonym for any person with mixed heritage (not just Afro+Euro).

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      • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Some people do complain about it

        It’s an Olympic sport nowadays.

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  • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s archaic enough that it’s probably not a slur, or at least not a particularly bad one. Archer got away with using this as his ringtone.

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Thanks for the info - my guess was wrong then.

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  • doingthestuff@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve only encountered the use of mulatto once in the wild. My girlfriend my freshman year at college had an adopted brother who was biracial. She used the word mulatto to describe him, but at the time everything she said about him seemed very loving.

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• Atropos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m guessing 50/50 mixed race based on context.

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  • clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Specifically half African-descended and half European (white).

    As compared to Mestizo - being half white and half native American (incl. South American)

    They went to stuff like Octaroon and Quadroon, having lower percentages of African ancestry.

    It’s all super racist obviously.

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• nokturne213@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

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