adj.
- relating to a group of people having a common national or cultural tradition.
- denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality:
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ethnic Albanians.
- characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition:
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ethnic dresses.
- archaic heathen.
n.
chiefly N. Amer. a member of an ethnic minority.
Derivative
- ethnically adv.
- ethnicity n.
(pl. ethnicities)
.
Usage
In recent years ethnic has begun to be 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 it is better expressed by more accurate terms such as black or Asian.
Etymology
ME (denoting a person not of the Christian or Jewish faith): via eccles. L. from Gk ethnikos ‘heathen’, from ethnos ‘nation’.
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