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Glite Dictionary
🧑 A group member 👪 A family name 🧬 Related to heritage
Melungeon

Melungeon

1 9.9
A person of mixed family background from Appalachia, especially Tennessee and Virginia
  • proper noun
  • /məˈlʌn.dʒən/
: melungeon
  • Worley seems very happy and takes every opportunity to ask folks up the mountain if they remember little Destry, the beautiful Melungeon girl.

Examples

  • Recently, an article on Melungeons was in the news but reported findings not quite accurate to the report.

    Blog text (12)

  • The Melungeon community itself told of their history in 1848, 1890, and 1897.

  • Worley seems very happy and takes every opportunity to ask folks up the mountain if they remember little Destry, the beautiful Melungeon girl.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The people around here are mainly Scotch-Irish or Melungeon (folks who are a mix of Turkish, French, African, Indian, and who knows what; they live up in the mountain hollers and stick to themselves).

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Goins is of Melungeon descent and has researched Melungeon history for around 40 years.

Surface Forms

Melungeon main

Etymology

Melungeon likely comes from a word for 'mixture', with one common idea pointing to French mélange ('mixture'). So the name Melungeon was used for the group of people of mixed heritage in places like Tennessee and Virginia.