# ethnic

Pronunciation: say "ETH-nik" /ˈɛθ.nɪk/

## Adjective

1. Having to do with a people or group defined by shared origins, whether racial, ancestral, national, religious, or cultural.
   - Simple: Connected to a group of people who share the same culture, language, religion, or family background.
   - _The region's many ethnic groups have coexisted peacefully for centuries._
   - _Government forms often ask citizens to state their ethnic origin._
2. Characteristic of the traditional culture of a particular people, especially a foreign or minority one, as in its food, dress, music, or art.
   - Simple: Typical of the traditional food, clothes, music, or art of a people from another country or culture.
   - _The restaurant specializes in ethnic cuisine rarely found elsewhere in the city._
   - _Designers borrowed ethnic patterns for the new spring collection._

## Noun

3. A person regarded as ethnic, especially a foreigner or a member of an immigrant community.
   - Simple: A person seen as foreign, or one who belongs to an immigrant community.
   - _Politicians in the 1970s courted Polish, Irish, and Italian ethnics in the factory towns of the Midwest._
   - _She resented being labeled an ethnic in her own hometown._

## Adjective

4. Heathen; not belonging to the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religions. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In older use, describing people who did not follow the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religion.

## Noun

5. A person who is not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim; a heathen or pagan. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In old use, a person who did not follow the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religion.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A demonym for an Ancient Greek city: the name given to its inhabitants.

## Origin

Ancient Greek éthnos first meant "a company" and later "a people or nation." From it came ethnikós, meaning "heathen" or "of or for a nation," which Latin took as ethnicus ("pagan, heathen"). English got the word through Middle English ethnik.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ethnic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).