mameluco

English

Etymology

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

Noun

mameluco (plural mamelucos)

1. A child born of one white parent and one Brazilian Indian parent. [from 19th c.]
   • 2003, Peter Robb, A Death in Brazil, Bloomsbury, published 2005, page 126:

     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.

Coordinate terms

• (person of mixed race): see list in mulatto

Translations

child born of white parent and Brazilian Indian parent

• Portuguese: mameluco (pt) m, mamaluco m

Adjective

mameluco (comparative more mameluco, superlative most mameluco)

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

Translations

born of a white father and American Indian mother

• Portuguese: mameluco (pt) m, mamaluco m

References

• “mameluco”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• mamaluco

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic مَمْلُوك (mamlūk, “slave”).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.meˈlu.ku/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.meˈlu.ku/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.meˈlu.ko/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mɐ.mɨˈlu.ku/

• Hyphenation: ma‧me‧lu‧co

Noun

mameluco m (plural mamelucos, feminine mameluca, feminine plural mamelucas)

1. (historical) mameluke (member of a military regime in mediaeval and early modern Egypt and Syria)
2. mameluco (person born of a white father and American Indian mother)

Adjective

mameluco (feminine mameluca, masculine plural mamelucos, feminine plural mamelucas)

1. mameluco

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mameˈluko/ [ma.meˈlu.ko]
• Rhymes: -uko
• Syllabification: ma‧me‧lu‧co

Adjective

mameluco (feminine mameluca, masculine plural mamelucos, feminine plural mamelucas)

1. mameluco

Noun

mameluco m (plural mamelucos)

1. mameluke
2. mameluco
3. (Latin America) overalls; onesie

   Synonyms: mono, braga, buzo, overol

Further reading

• “mameluco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10