The word "quadroon" was borrowed from the Spanish cuarterón which has its roots in the Latin quartus, which means fourth. The word octoroon is based on quadroon, and rooted in the Latin octo, which means eight.
Quadroon was used to designate a person of one-quarter African/Aboriginal ancestry, that is one biracial parent (African/Aboriginal and Caucasian) and one Caucasian parent; in other words, one African/Aboriginal grandparent and three Caucasian grandparents.[2]
The term mulatto was used to designate a person who was biracial, with one black parent and one white parent.[2]
The term octoroon referred to a person with one-eighth African ancestry;[3] that is, someone with family heritage of one biracial grandparent, in other words, one African great-grandparent and seven Caucasian great-grandparents. As with the use of quadroon, this word was applied to a limited extent in Australia for those of one-eighth Aboriginal ancestry, in the putting in place of government assimilation policies.
Terceron was a term synonymous with octoroon, derived from being three generations of descent from an African ancestor (great-grandparent).[4] The term mustee was also used to refer to a person with one-eighth African ancestry, while mustefino refers to a person with one-sixteenth African ancestry.[2] The terms "quintroon" or "hexadecaroon" were also applied.
The term griffe or sambo has been used for someone of three-quarters African heritage, or the child of a biracial parent and a fully black parent.