ethnography

Etymology

It is formed from English ethno- + -graphy,^[2][3][4][5] after German Ethnographie,^[2][3][6] recorded in German from 1767 or earlier;^[2] the OED compares French ethnographie, from 1819,^[2] and Merriam-Webster takes the English word from the French one.^[7][8] The combining form ethno- is from Ancient Greek ἔθνος (éthnos, “nation, people”),^[2][3][6] and -graphy from -γραφία (-graphía, “writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The systematic study and description of peoples and cultures: 1811, in G. B. Depping's Evening Entertainments.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the word to 1812,^[3] and Barnhart to 1834.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Early 19th-century definitions spoke of the description and classification of the races of mankind,^[3][4] and the word also meant the ethnic make-up of a place or people (1812).^[2] Merriam-Webster distinguishes it from ethnology as the descriptive branch, which describes cultures rather than comparing and analysing them.^[7][8] From before 1833 an ethnography was also a single descriptive work, an account of a people or culture.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1811 – the systematic study and description of peoples and cultures.^[2][7] Etymonline gives 1812, Barnhart 1834.^[3][6]
• 1812 – the ethnic character or make-up of a place or people.^[2]
• before 1833 – a descriptive work about a people or culture.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The branch of anthropology that describes individual peoples, societies and cultures, usually from fieldwork.^{[10][7][2][11]}
2. A written description of a particular people or culture produced by such research: She published an ethnography of a fishing village.^[7][2][11]
3. The ethnic character or make-up of a place or people.^[2]

Word family

• ethnographer
• ethnographically
• ethnographic

Related words

• ethnic
• ethnical
• ethnicity
• ethnology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt