English

A Japanese person, a mongoloid (member of the racial classification)

Alternative forms

• Mongoloid (especially the racial classification)

Noun

mongoloid ‎(plural mongoloids)

1. (anthropology) A member of the racial classification of humanity composed of peoples native to North Asia, East Asia, Pacific Oceania, and Greenland, as well as their diaspora in other parts of the world.
   • 1983, Bertha Pauline Dutton, American Indians of the Southwest, page 3,

     Both American Indians and Mongoloids have shovel-shaped incisor teeth and, at birth, display the Mongoloid spot — a blue spot above the rump, which fades within a short time; many also have the Mongoloid, or epicanthic, fold of the inner part of the upper eyelid.

   • 1991, Floyd James Davis, Who is Black?: One Nation's Definition, page 19,

     On the average, he found caucasoids to have the longest heads and mongoloids the roundest; mongoloids the straightest hair and negroids the most tightly curled; caucasoids the narrowest noses and negroids the broadest.

   • 1997, Masatoshi Nei, Arun K. Roychoudhury, Genetic Relationship and Evolution of Human Races, page 38,

     As before, the genetic distance between Caucasoid and Mongoloid is the smallest and that between Negroid and Mongoloid is the largest.

2. (now offensive) A person with Down syndrome.
   • 1967, W. Wolfensberger, 13: Counseling Parents of the Retarded, Alfred A. Baumeister (editor), Ameliorating Mental Disability: Questioning Retardation, 2009, page 376,

     Kirman (1953) drew attention to some physicians' reluctance to offer even ordinary and routine medical care to mongoloids, whose treatment they consider a waste of time.

   • 1977, Diana Crane, The Sanctity of Social Life: Physicians' Treatment of Critically Ill Patients, page 97,

     It is therefore of interest to examine hospital records of mongoloid children with heart defects in order to find out how frequently operations are performed upon these children.

   • 1994, Meira Weiss, Conditional Love: Parents' Attitudes Toward Handicapped Children, page 102,

     The operation made each feature, itself, look O.K., but her overall looks are still those of a Mongoloid. Her facial expression immediately reveals that she is different. She still has that peculiar look. You can see she has Down's syndrome.

3. (offensive) Idiot, retard; a general term of abuse, due to association with Down syndrome.

Usage notes

Due to associations with old racial (and racist) theories (as with Caucasoid, Negroid), and associations with Down syndrome, the term is often offensive.

Derived terms

• (idiot, retard): mong, mongo (British, chiefly Scottish)

Related terms

• Mongol
• Mongolian
• mongolism

Translations

See also

• Australoid
• Caucasoid
• negroid
• sinoid