Dictionary

mameluco en · ADJ

Etymology

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese mameluco, from Arabic مَمْلُوك (mamlūk, “slave”). Doublet of mameluke.

Meanings

1. (dated, historical) Born of a white father and American Indian mother, particularly in South America.

Forms

Translations (2)

pt mamaluco (born of a white father and American Indian mother) · pt mameluco (born of a white father and American Indian mother)

mameluco en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese mameluco, from Arabic مَمْلُوك (mamlūk, “slave”). Doublet of mameluke.

Meanings

1. A child born of one white parent and one Brazilian Indian parent.
   • The reverse is the case in South America, where the mixture of the Portuguese or Brazilian with the Indian produces the "Mameluco," who is not unfrequently lighter than either parent, and always lighter than the Indian. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 50:
   • The Tupi, who a few years earlier had flourished along these opulent coasts, had already been driven farther and farther back into the forest, and appeared in the records […] only as occasional domestic slaves and already mainly present as mixed blood mamelucos, the first children of multiracial Brazil. 2003, Peter Robb, A Death in Brazil, Bloomsbury, published 2005, page 126:

Forms

Coordinates

list in mulatto (person of mixed race)

Translations (2)

pt mamaluco (child born of white parent and Brazilian Indian parent) · pt mameluco (child born of white parent and Brazilian Indian parent)