Where does “mulatto” come from?

Mulatto comes from Spanish mulato, formed with the Spanish suffix -ato from Latin mulus, a mule, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mukslós.

mulatto (English): A person of mixed black and white descent,...

Definitions

  1. A person of mixed black and white descent,...

Ancestry of “mulatto”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Spanishmulatomulatto; dark-skinned; a small or young mule
2Spanish-atoforms an institution from a noun stem; forms the...
3Latin-ātused
4Proto-Italic-ātos
5Proto-Indo-European-éh₂tosForms adjectives from nouns, indicating the possession of a thing or a quality

Words derived from “mulatto

Every word from Proto-Indo-European -éh₂tosEvery word from Latin -ātusEvery word from Spanish -ato