# Mestee

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A mixed race person, especially if mostly white in ancestry, appearance and culture.
2. A member of an old mixed race group, particularly those groups which identify more with their white ancestry than with their black or Native American ancestry, like the Melungeons and a person referred to as a brass ankle.
3. A person who is mostly white and less than one eighth black.
4. In the West Indies, a person who is one eighth black (an octoroon).

## Etymology
Usually from Middle French mestis (“a person of mixed race”), from Latin mixtus (Modern French métis); cognate with Spanish mestizo. Doublet of Metis, metis, mestizo, and mustee. Sometimes from Colonial Louisiana French mestif "child of an Octoroon and a white person" (15/16 white, 1/16 black), from Old French mestif (“mongrel”)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/mestee