ethnic
/ˈɛθnɪk
/- These policy shifts stem from struggles over social dominance among cultural and ethnic groups within the larger society.
- He says Germany's 2 million-plus Turks are the country's largest foreign ethnic group.
- The company dates back to a time when they would sell their products within ethnic communities, before eventually expanding to include the other Australians.
Synonyms
- The Muslim community in America is made up of people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and national origins.
- People from more than a hundred different nationalities and as many cultural and ethnic origins were subsumed under a single national identity in Israel.
- As I have set out above, the school has for many years taught pupils from a wide variety of ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds and religious faiths.
- About 25 per cent of the university's students are Bulgarians of Turkish ethnic origin and Roma.
- They were predominantly ethnic Albanian, but from different backgrounds - farmers, politicians and retirees.
- Macedonia came close to civil war last year, when ethnic Albanians staged an uprising demanding greater rights.
- The richness of their heritage became a legacy for all and their recordings dating back to the turn of the 20th century put Irish traditional music on a par with other ethnic world music forms.
- Dark blue walls shimmer with candlelight, a display case of market vegetables glows in the background and strains of ethnic music play at just the right level for conversation.
- The festival, to be held on October 9, features ethnic foods and music, craft booths, and food vendors.
- It introduces new approaches to the interaction between America and its ethnics.
- Even street gangs of the time reflected the trend to embrace ethnics and banish blacks.
Usage
Ethnic is sometimes used in a euphemistic way to refer to non-white people as a whole, as in a radio station which broadcasts to the ethnic community in Birmingham. Although this usage is quite common, more specific terms such as ‘black’ or ‘Asian’ are preferable.Note that use of the word as a noun is often regarded as offensive, especially in British English, and is best avoided.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting a person not of the Christian or Jewish faith): via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek ethnikos 'heathen', from ethnos 'nation'. Current senses date from the 19th century.
This, like gentile (see gentle), was first used for a person not belonging to the Christian or Jewish faith. It comes via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek ethnikos ‘heathen’, from ethnos ‘nation’. Current senses date from the mid 19th century. The phrase ethnic minority arose in the 1940s; references to ethnic cleansing are found in texts from the 1990s.