metis
(ˈmeɪtɪs)
Also fem. métisse.
[a. F. métis:—late L. mistīcius, whence also mestizo.]
The offspring of a white and an American Indian, esp. in Canada. Also applied to other persons of mixed blood and transf. to animals and plants.
| 1816 C. Robertson in Publ. Hudson's Bay Rec. Soc. (1939) II. 248 Your European Servants and Metiss are in many places deserting over to the North West Company. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 158/2 The mixed race [in Mexico] is mostly composed of the descendants of the Europeans and the aboriginal tribes: these are called Metis or Mestizos. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 491/2 Of the latter [Indian half-breeds] one half are of English-speaking parentage..the remainder are known as Metis or Bois-brûlés. 1895 in Funk's Stand. Dict., Métisse. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 531/1 Then Manitoba was principally inhabited by English and French half-breeds (or Metis). 1949 Amer. Speech XXIV. 95 A common term to indicate a crossbreed between Persian lamb and other Asiatic species of lamb is metis, derived from the French for ‘half-breed’. 1955 G. Greene Quiet Amer. iii. i. 196 Across the way a métisse with long and lovely legs lay..reading a glossy woman's paper. 1961 E. Bruton King Diamond vi. 87 ‘She's not African. Not entirely anyway... She's a metisse.’..‘I know he wouldn't have gone for an African.’ ‘He didn't exactly. She's half and half.’ 1966 Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard 29 July 6/3 A settlement of about 1500 Cree Indians and 300 Metis. 1972 Guardian 4 July 16/2 The estimated 15,000 to 50,000 métis children in South Vietnam—children of American soldiers, either half-black or half-white. 1972 D. Bloodworth Any Number can Play v. 37 He nodded towards a plump Eurasian... ‘Bonjour, les gars,’ murmured the métis. 1974 Sci. Amer. June 115/1 In California the work has taken mainly the direction of producing new métis (crosses within species) by crossing Europe's temperate-climate and Mediterranean vines with a view to obtaining better grapes for the fertile but desertlike Central Valley. 1975 Time 3 Feb. 8/3 The oppression and mistreatment of the Indians and Métis..never become anything more than a rhetorical device. |