fustee

English

Etymology 1

Unclear. The 1911 Century Dictionary suggests it is a variation of mustee (the ending in any case matches mustee/mestee and costee, as well as dustee, which Century suggests might in turn by a variation of fustee). Perhaps compare fusty, or fustic, a yellow dye?

Noun

fustee (plural fustees)

1. (uncommon, dated or historical, now offensive) A person who is of 1/16 black ancestry, the child of a mustee and a white.
   • 1844, unknown author, Antigua and the Antiguans, (Complete) a Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants From the Time of the Caribs to the Present Day, →ISBN:

     The several removes from a black are as follows:—The mongrel, the offspring of a black and a mulatto; the mulatto, the offspring of a black and a white; the mustee, the offspring of a mulatto and a white; the fustee, the offspring of a mustee and a white; and the dustee, the offspring of a fustee and a white. This last gradation is the connecting link between the degraded children of Ham, and the descendants of his more honoured brethren.

   • 1842, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Horatio Hastings Weld, editors, The Dollar Magazine, page 217:

     […] very sly— very odd, indeed! married, eh? or run off with a mustee or fustee, you dog?—eh?

   • 1893, Congressional Serial Set, page 88:

     THE COLORED RACE IN BRITISH GUIANA.
     The race designated and known in the United States as colored is here known and designated as follows, viz : Black, Cob, Mulatto, Mustee, Costee, and Fustee. But for the purposes of this report it is deemed proper to […]

   • 1937, Hendrik De Leeuw, Crossroads of the Buccaneers:

     […] producing such admixtures as half-breeds, mulattos, quadroons, quintroons, octoroons, and fustees, etc. There may also have been a fusion of whites and Indians, which produces the mestee or mestizos; […]

Coordinate terms

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

Etymology 2

From a Spanish word related to fusta or fuste.

Noun

fustee (plural fustees)

1. (rare) A caravel or other (Spanish) ship.
   • 1888, Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, Relating to the Negotiations Between England and Spain, Preserved in the Archives at Simancas, Vienna, Brussels, and Elsewhere, pages 369 and 484:

     Figueros, the ambassador, has been instructed to provide you with a fustee or caravel for your passage to Barcelona.
     […]
     The fustees going to Marseilles, and being admitted into that port, king Francis redeemed for 700 ducats the Muscovite ambassador now residing at the French court, whilst Moorish and Turkish pirates are allowed shelter in French ports.

Further reading

• 1968, James I (King of Aragon), The Chronicle of James I., King of Aragon: Surnamed the Conqueror:

  FUSTA-ES (Sp. fusta), wood, vessel, ship, fustee

Anagrams

• festue