light-skinned

adjective

ˈlīt-ˈskind 

variants or less commonly light skinned

1

: having a light olive to medium brown complexion

especially : being a Black, Latinx, Indigenous, mixed-race, or other person of color with such a complexion

… Eslanda Elbert Cardozo, Essie's light-skinned mother, rebelled against the pervasive colorist attitudes of the era's African-American community when she married the dark-skinned John Goode.

—Eleanor J. Bader

I've never thought there was a whole lot of value to being light skinned in a society that hasn't embraced its black people of whatever shade, but if people want to be colorist, you can't stop them.

—Kashana Cauley

I identify as a mixed-race woman because being light-skinned and having mixed features places me at an advantage in the matrix of colorist, Europeanized beauty standards, which have historically (and artificially) placed light-skinned Black and biracial women at odds with our darker-skinned sisters.

—Sarah Valentine

2

: having fair skin

Melanin is generated in response to the ultraviolet B radiation in sunlight; it is what makes light-skinned people tan.

—Jane E. Brody

Malignant melanoma is primarily a disease of light-skinned individuals of northern European parentage with a history of exposure to intense solar radiation.

—Marvin Harris

Word History

First Known Use

1802, in the meaning defined at sense 2