Etymologically
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ethnic

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈeθ.nɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin ethnicus (“heathen”),[2][3][4] from Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós, “of a nation, national; foreign, gentile”),[2][5][6] from ἔθνος (éthnos, “band of people, nation, tribe”),[2][3] from PIE *swedh-no-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *s(w)e- (“self”), which also formed words for one's own social group.[2][3] In the Septuagint, the Greek ta ethnē translated Hebrew gōyīm, “the nations” not worshipping the God of Israel (see goy), and this gave the Christian sense “heathen”.[2][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a person who is neither Christian nor Jewish, a heathen: about 1375, in Scots, in Barnhart and the OED.[3][7] The adjective “pagan, heathen” is from about 1470,[7][3] after ethnical in the early 15th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

The AHD notes that the noun in the sense “heathen” is not recorded after 1728, while the adjective broadened in the 19th century, probably under the influence of ethnography and ethnology.[6] Peculiar to a race or nation is from 1851,[7][3] and belonging to different cultural groups from 1935.[3] The ethnic minority is from 1945 in the OED, the 1910s in Word Origins,[7][8] and the noun, a member of an ethnic group, is American from 1945.[3][6][2] Of music and food in the style of a particular people, it dates from the later 20th century, 1957 for music;[7] ethnic cleansing is found in texts from the 1990s.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1375 – a heathen.[3][7]
  • c. 1470 – the adjective, pagan.[7]
  • 1728 – last record of the noun “heathen”.[6]
  • 1851 – peculiar to a race or nation.[7][3]
  • 1935 – of cultural groups.[3]
  • 1945 – a member of an ethnic group.[3][7]
  • 1990s – ethnic cleansing.[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Relating to a large group of people who share a racial, national, religious, linguistic or cultural heritage.
  2. Belonging to such a group, especially a minority.
  3. Typical of the traditions of a particular people or culture: ethnic food.
  4. (obsolete) Heathen, pagan.

Noun

  1. A member of an ethnic group, especially one who keeps its language or customs.

Word family

  • ethnically
  • interethnic
  • multiethnic
  • nonethnic
  • polyethnic
  • ethnic cleansing
  • ethnical
  • ethnicity
  • ethnocentric
  • ethnography
  • ethnology
  • ethos
  • idiom
  • goy

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press