The game is Word Cookies by Bitmango. I contacted them but haven’t heard back. I’m guessing it was just an oversight, but it still pissed me off.

  • Lvxferre [he/him]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    196 months ago

    Someone with mixed African and European ancestry.

    Etymologically it’s rather nasty: the word was coined in either Spanish or Portuguese as “mulato”, as a reference to mules (“mula” - horse x donkey hybrid).

    In Portuguese it seems to me that this association faded away. However, I’m going to take a guess and say that the word is probably a slur in English, so not something that you want to use for its meaning.

    • Eager Eagle
      link
      English
      16
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • Lvxferre [he/him]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        36 months ago

        Yeah, in Portuguese it is not a big deal. (I’m also a native speaker.) Some people do complain about it, but it’s typically based on etymology, not current usage.

        Dunno how others interpret it but for me “mestiço” isn’t quite an alternative, it’s more like a hyperonym for any person with mixed heritage (not just Afro+Euro).

    • @SkyezOpen
      link
      English
      126 months ago

      It’s archaic enough that it’s probably not a slur, or at least not a particularly bad one. Archer got away with using this as his ringtone.

    • @doingthestuff
      link
      English
      36 months ago

      I’ve only encountered the use of mulatto once in the wild. My girlfriend my freshman year at college had an adopted brother who was biracial. She used the word mulatto to describe him, but at the time everything she said about him seemed very loving.