ghetto

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A poor area of a city where people of one ethnic group or background live, often separated from the rest.

   Many immigrants once lived crowded together in the city's ghetto.

2. 2
   noun

   In the past, an area of a city where Jews were forced by law to live.

   The Venetian ghetto was established in the sixteenth century.

3. 3
   adj

   Cheap, low-quality, or crude (informal, often offensive).

   He fixed the broken handle with tape in a really ghetto way.

Simplified etymology

Ghetto probably comes from Italian getto, “foundry,” because the first Venetian ghetto was established in 1516 on the site of a foundry. An alternative derivation is from Italian borghetto, “little borough.” In Italy the word first referred to the city quarter to which Jews were restricted, before broadening to districts occupied by other minority groups and especially to impoverished urban areas.

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary