Editing Mestizo (section)

==Etymology==
The Spanish word {{lang|es|mestizo}} is from [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|mixticius}}, meaning {{gloss|mixed}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mestizo |title=mestizo |year=2008 |work=Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster, Incorporated |quote=a person of mixed blood; specifically: Generally used in Latin America to describe a person of mixed European and American Indian indigenous ancestry. }}</ref><ref name="dictionary.reference.com">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mestizo |title=Mestizo – Define Mestizo at Dictionary.com |work=Dictionary.com |access-date=29 March 2015}}</ref> Its usage was documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an [[Egypt|Egyptian/]]Afro Hamite and a [[Semitic people|Semite]]/Afro Asiatic.<ref name="AlfonsoX-p261R">{{cite book |author=Alfonso X |title=General Estoria. Primera parte |location=Spain |year=1275 |page=261R |url=http://Corpus.rae.es}}</ref> This term was first documented in English in 1582.<ref name="Herbst-p.144">{{cite book |last=Herbst |first=Philip |title=The Color of Words: An Encyclopædic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States |publisher=Intercultural Press |location=Yarmouth |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-877864-42-1 |page=144}}</ref>

===Cognates and related terms===
{{lang|es|Mestizo}} ({{IPA|es|mesˈtiθo|lang}} {{IPA|es|mesˈtiso|label=or}}), {{lang|pt|mestiço}} ({{IPA|pt-PT|mɨʃˈtisu|label=Portuguese:}} {{IPA|pt-BR|mesˈtʃisu|label=or}}), {{lang|fr|métis}} ({{IPA|fr|meti(s)|lang}}), {{lang|ca|mestís}} ({{IPA|ca|məsˈtis|lang}}), {{lang|de|Mischling}} ({{IPA|de|ˈmɪʃlɪŋ|lang}}), {{lang|it|meticcio}} ({{IPA|it|meˈtittʃo|lang}}), {{lang|nl|mestiezen}} ({{IPA|nl|mɛsˈtizə(n)|lang}}), {{lang|enm|mestee}} ({{IPA|enm|məsˈtiː|lang}}), and ''mixed'' are all [[cognates]] of the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{lang|la|mixticius}}.

The [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] [[cognate]], {{lang|pt|[[mestiço]]}}, historically referred to any mixture of Portuguese and local populations in the [[Portuguese colonies]]. In [[colonial Brazil]], most of the non-enslaved population was initially {{lang|pt|[[caboclo|mestiço de indio]]}}, i.e. mixed Portuguese and [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|Native Brazilian]]. There was no descent-based casta system, and children of upper-class Portuguese landlord males and enslaved females enjoyed privileges higher than those given to the lower classes, such as formal education. Such cases were not so common and the children of enslaved women tended not to be allowed to inherit property. This right of inheritance was generally given to children of free women, who tended to be legitimate offspring in cases of concubinage (this was a common practice in certain Indigenous American and African cultures). In the Portuguese-speaking world, the contemporary sense has been the closest to the historical usage from the Middle Ages. Because of important linguistic and historical differences, {{lang|pt|mestiço}} (mixed, mixed-ethnicity, miscegenation, etc.) is separated altogether from {{lang|pt|pardo}} (which refers to any kind of brown people) and {{lang|pt|caboclo}} (brown people originally of European–Indigenous American admixture, or assimilated Indigenous American). The term {{lang|pt|mestiços}} can also refer to fully African or East Asian in their full definition (thus not brown). One does not need to be a {{lang|pt|mestiço}} to be classified as pardo or caboclo. <!-- Confusing -->

In Brazil specifically, at least in modern times, all non-Indigenous people are considered to be a single ethnicity ({{lang|pt|os brasileiros}}. Lines between ethnic groups are historically fluid); since the earliest years of the Brazilian colony, the {{lang|pt|mestiço}} group has been the most numerous among the free people. As explained above, the concept of {{lang|pt|mestiço}} should not be confused with ''mestizo'' as used in either the Spanish-speaking world or the English-speaking one. It does not relate to being of Indigenous American ancestry, and is not used interchangeably with {{lang|pt|pardo}}, literally "brown people". (There are {{lang|pt|mestiços}} among all major groups of the country: Indigenous, Asian, {{lang|pt|pardo}}, and African, and they likely constitute the majority in the three latter groups.)

In English-speaking Canada, [[Métis (Canada)|Canadian Métis]] (capitalized), as a loanword from French, refers to persons of mixed French or European and Indigenous ancestry, who were part of a particular ethnic group. French-speaking Canadians, when using the word ''métis'', are referring to Canadian Métis ethnicity, and all persons of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry. Many were involved in the fur trade with Canadian [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] peoples (especially [[Cree]] and [[Anishinaabeg]]). Over generations, they developed a separate culture of hunters and trappers, and were concentrated in the [[Red River Valley]] and speak the [[Michif language]].