ethnic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Relating to a group of people who share the same race, culture, language, or national background.

   The city is home to many different ethnic communities.

2. 2
   adj

   Typical of the culture of a particular nation or minority group, especially in food, music, or clothing.

   They went out for ethnic food at a Thai restaurant.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Ethnic came through ecclesiastical Latin from Greek ethnikos, meaning “heathen,” which was derived from ethnos, “nation.” It originally described someone outside the Christian or Jewish faith; its modern senses developed in the mid-19th century.

From Middle English ethnik, from Latin ethnicus ("pagan", "heathen"), from Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós, “of or for a nation, heathen”), from ἔθνος (éthnos, “a company", later "a people or nation, heathens”). By surface analysis, ethno- + -ic.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary