| 释义 |
ethnic, a. and n.|ˈɛθnɪk|
Forms: 4–6 ethnyke, 5–7 ethnik(e, 6–8 ethnick(e, (6 æth-, ethenicke, etneke), 7 ethnique, (ethnycke), 6– ethnic.
[ad. Gr. ἐθνικ-ός heathen, f. ἔθνος nation; in the LXX, hence in N.T. and the Fathers, τὰ ἔθνη = the nations, Gentiles (rendering Heb. gōyīm, pl. of gōy, nation, esp. non-Israelitish or ‘Gentile’ nation).
The Gr. ἔθνος was formerly often imagined to be the source of Eng. heathen; hence the confused forms hethnic, heathenic, which might be regarded as corrupt variants of this word.]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to nations not Christian or Jewish; Gentile, heathen, pagan.
c1470Harding Chron. Printer's Pref. ix, The bible bookes of Iudges and Kynges..farre surmounting all ethnike dooynges. 1545Udall Erasm. Par. Pref. 3 An ethnike and a pagane kyng. 1581Marbeck Bk. of Notes 61 That all composition is against the nature of God even the Ethnicke Philosophers perceived. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xlix. §171 Professing himselfe to be a Christian, and withall protesting that he would not be a soueraigne ouer an Ethnike Empire. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xlii. 281 Exhorted their Converts to obey their then Ethnique Princes. 1804Moore Epist. iii. iii. 45 All the charm that ethnic fancy gave To blessed arbours o'er the western wave. 18..Longfellow Drinking Song vii, These are ancient ethnic revels Of a faith long since forsaken. 1851Carlyle Sterling i. vii. (1872) 45, I find at this time his religion is as good as altogether Ethnic, Greekish. 1873Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 107 There is first the ethnic forecourt, then the purgatorial middle-space.
2. a. Pertaining to race; peculiar to a race or nation; ethnological. Also, pertaining to or having common racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics, esp. designating a racial or other group within a larger system; hence (U.S. colloq.), foreign, exotic.
1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ix. 229 That ethnic stock which embraced all existing European races. 1865Reader 11 Feb. 163/1 The slight development of ethnic peculiarities in childhood. 1875Lightfoot Comm. Col. (1886) 133 Heresies are at best ethnic: truth is essentially catholic. 1935Huxley & Haddon We Europeans iv. 136 Nowhere does a human group now exist which corresponds closely to a systematic sub-species in animals, since various original sub-species have crossed repeatedly and constantly. For existing populations, the noncommittal term ethnic group should be used. Ibid. vi. 181 The special type of ethnic grouping of which the Jews form the best-known example. 1936Discovery June 167 [In Africa] linguistic divisions are a very fair indication of ethnic groups. 1939C. S. Coon Races of Europe xi. 444 The Jews are an ethnic unit, although one which has little regard for spatial considerations. Like other ethnic units, the Jews have their own standard racial character. 1964Listener 6 Feb. 233/2 There are many groupings of people, ethnic units, population aggregates—call them what you will—that may be distinguished from each other. 1965Sun 6 Dec. 7/6 Ethnic..has come to mean foreign, or un-American or plain quaint. 1969New Yorker 30 Aug. 76/2 Its hopelessly reactionary nature is best exemplified not..even by the ethnic comedians. 1970Daily Tel. 16 Apr. 18 The situation is fast becoming greatly complicated by the presence in Cambodia of large numbers, put at 400,000 to 500,000, of ‘ethnic’ Vietnamese.
b. ethnic minority (group), a group of people differentiated from the rest of the community by racial origins or cultural background, and usu. claiming or enjoying official recognition of their group identity. Also attrib.
1945Amer. Sociol. Rev. X. 481 (heading) Status and housing of ethnic minorities. 1964Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 244/1 R. E. Park and his students have done outstanding research work into the patterns of adjustment, accommodation, and assimilation of ethnic minorities. 1968[see bilinguality]. 1974Educ. & Community Rel. Jan. 1, Primary and secondary schools were included which were in areas of ethnic minority group settlement but had no ethnic minority group children in the school. 1976Equals Oct./Nov. 1/1 An all-out campaign against both racial hatred and the discrimination and disadvantages facing ethnic minorities in Britain has been launched by the Trades Union Congress. 1984Guardian 20 Nov. 8/7 Ethnic minorities will hopefully be tempted into the force by the fact that a black and female PC is given a starring role in the film.
B. n.
†1. One who is not a Christian or a Jew; a Gentile, heathen, pagan. Obs.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Barnabas 161 A part of It [the temple] fel done & mad a gret distruccione Of ethnykis. c1534tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camd. Soc.) I. 169 Beinge on all sides beesett with the Tracherie of these rude æthenickes, hee was sodainlie slayne. 1588Allen Admon. 37 Yf he..heare not the Churche, let him be taken for an Ethnike. 1625B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. iv, A kind of Mule! That's half an Ethnick, half a Christian! 1664Evelyn Sylva (1776) 614 The Ethnics do still repute all great trees to be divine. 1728Morgan Algiers I. iv. 77 They look upon them [the Jews] as several degrees beneath..Heathens, Ethnicks, Pagans, and Idolaters.
2. Greek Antiq. An epithet denoting nationality, derived from or corresponding to the name of a people or city [= ἐθνικόν (Steph. Byz.)]. Also gen.
1828J. A. Cramer Anc. Greece III. Index p. i, The Greek ethnic of each town or place has been subjoined where there was authority for it. 1902D. G. Hogarth Nearer East 194 Where the ‘Arab’ (to use the ethnic widely) lives under conditions similar to the Greek, he resembles him. 1921C. T. Seltman Temple Coins Olympia 103 The dies..upon which the full ethnic FαλΕΙΩν appears. 1921Brit. Mus. Return 79 The ethnics of Damastium and Pelagia. 1959A. G. Woodhead Study Gk. Inscriptions 44 Sometimes the single name, without further elaboration, sometimes with patronymic and demotic or ethnic, or with one of the two.
3. A member of an ethnic group or minority. orig. U.S.
1945Warner & Srole Social Syst. Amer. Ethnic Groups (Yankee City Ser. III) v. 68 The Irish..had their origins largely in the peasant stratum... The Jews were of the burgher class... These differences in the ethnics' social-class backgrounds will be seen later to have important bearing on their adaptation. Ibid. 93 The ethnics have conspicuously succeeded in ‘getting ahead’ in the Yankee City social hierarchy. 1961Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Nov. 828/4 The former ‘ethnics’, a polite term for Jews, Italians, and other lesser breeds just inside the law. 1963T. & P. Morris Pentonville iii. 62 It is the general view of the prison staff that the majority of ‘coloureds’ and ‘ethnics’ are West Indians. 1964S. M. Miller in I. L. Horowitz New Sociology 297 As the white ethnics—first the Irish, later the Jews, and still more recently the Italians..gained strength.
Add:[A.] [2.] c. Of music: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a particular ethnic group or cultural tradition; hence applied to (esp. pop or rock) music which prominently incorporates elements of the music of a particular ethnic group.
1957Time (Canad. ed.) 4 Feb. 63/1 The braves at the war dance start truckin' on down to that red-hot ethnic music. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 13 Dec. 4/6 Ethnic rock, anything foreign. 1983Washington Post 3 Apr. c3/2 Bloom describes the sound as ‘Sunny Ade meets Laurie Anderson, ethnic pop. It brings together African juju sounds and a real strong Cuban and Brazilian influence.’ 1989Penguin Encycl. Pop. Mus. 977/1 He [sc. Steve Reich] deliberately rejected the increasing complexity of contemporary ‘serious’ music in favour of a reduced vocabulary, searching in ethnic and ancient musics for ideas. 1991Times Educ. Suppl. 8 Feb. 42/5 The Radio Authority has helpfully decreed that classical music, light orchestra and non-amplified jazz, folk, country and ethnic music aren't pop. Neither is anything recorded pre-1960. This is a barmy decision. |