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diaspora

Pronunciation: /dʌɪˈasp(ə)rə/

Definition of diaspora

noun

(the diaspora)
  • the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel.
  • Jews living outside Israel.
  • the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland: the diaspora of boat people from Asia
  • people who have spread or been dispersed from their homeland: the Ukrainian diaspora flocked back to Kiev

The main diaspora began in the 8th-6th centuries bc, and even before the sack of Jerusalem in ad 70 the number of Jews dispersed by the diaspora was greater than that living in Israel. Thereafter, Jews were dispersed even more widely throughout the Roman world and beyond

Derivatives

diasporic

adjective

Origin:

Greek, from diaspeirein 'disperse', from dia 'across'+ speirein 'scatter'. The term originated in the Septuagint (Deuteronomy 28:25) in the phrase esē diaspora en pasais basileias tēs gēs 'thou shalt be a dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth'

diaspora in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of diaspora in the US English dictionary

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