English

Alternative forms

• ethnick (obsolete)

Adjective

ethnic ‎(comparative more ethnic, superlative most ethnic)

1. Of or relating to a group of people having common racial, national, religious or cultural origins.

   There are many ethnic Indonesians in the Netherlands

2. Belonging to a foreign culture.

   I like to eat ethnic food

3. Representative of a folk or traditional mode of expression.
   • 2008. A History of Folk Music Festivals in the United States. Ronald D. Cohen.

     Indeed, such ethnic music festivals were probably common throughout the country

   • 1990. European Review of Native American Studies. Vols 4-6.

     contemporary artists are victims of the dichotomization of fine art and folk or ethnic art, where the latter must evince standardized techniques of simplicity, naivete, naturalism, and exoticism.

   • 2012. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. Michael Campbell.

     popular music is usually positioned between classical music on the one hand and folk or ethnic music on the other.

   • 2012. Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions. Kip Lornell.

     Once you dig below the surface you discover folk, grassroots, and ethnic music throughout the United States

4. (historical) Heathen, not Judeo-Christian-Muslim.

Derived terms

Related terms

Synonyms

• (culturally foreign): exotic
• (heathen): pagan, gentile

Translations

Noun

ethnic ‎(plural ethnics)

1. An ethnic person, especially a foreigner or member of an immigrant community.
2. An ethnic minority. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (archaic) A heathen, a pagan.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Preface ::

     ..for the learned know that even in St. Jerome's time, the consul of Rome and his wife were both Ethnics, and about the same time the greatest part of the senate also...

   • 1641. John Milton. Of Reformation in England.

     ...And the people of God, redeemed and washed with Christ's blood, and dignified with so many glorious titles of saints and sons in the Gospel, are now no better reputed than impure ethnics and lay dogs...

4. (in classical scholarship) the demonym of an Ancient Greek city
   • 2006. Cohen. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin & North Africa, 151.

     "Coinage with the ethnic ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΥΦΡΑΤΗΝ survives from the mid-second century A.D."

Translations