ethnic

 
Pronunciation: /ˈɛθnɪk/

adjective

  • 1relating to a population subgroup (within a larger or dominant national or cultural group) with a common national or cultural tradition: ethnic and cultural rights and traditions leaders of ethnic communities
  • relating to national and cultural origins: pupils from a wide variety of ethnic origins
  • denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality: ethnic Indian populations
  • characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition: ethnic jewellery folk and ethnic music
  • 2 archaic neither Christian nor Jewish; pagan or heathen.

noun

chiefly North American
  • a member of an ethnic minority.

Derivatives

ethnically

adverb

Origin:

late Middle English (denoting a person not of the Christian or Jewish faith): via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek ethnikos 'heathen', from ethnos 'nation'. Current senses date from the 19th century

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, especially in journalism, it is better expressed by more accurate terms such as ‘black’, ‘Asian’, etc.