ethnocentricadj.
/ˌɛθnə(ʊ)ˈsɛntrɪk/, U.S. /ˌɛθnoʊˈsɛntrɪk/ Tending to view the world from the perspective of one's own culture, sometimes with an assumption of superiority; limited as regards knowledge and appreciation of other cultures and communities. Also in neutral sense: aware of membership of an ethnic group, community, or culture.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > racial attitudes > [adjective] > racist
anti-black1835
ethnocentric1861
racialistic1904
racist1923
racialist1924
völkisch1939
racistic1950
ethnocentred2003
1861 Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 179 We have happily rid ourselves somewhat of the ethnocentric prepossessions which led the Greeks..to regard all other peoples as outside barbarians.
1899 Amer. Anthropologist 1 433 As the perception of relation proceeds, the lowly egocentric system becomes ethnocentric and then democentric.
1906 W. G. Sumner Folkways i. 15 The state..became the object of that group vanity and antagonism which had been ethnocentric.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Social Anthropol. vi. 127 This ethnocentric attitude has to be abandoned if we are to appreciate the rich variety of human culture and social life.
1964 M. Critchley Developmental Dyslexia xii. 70 The age at which a child normally begins to read with facility is also the age at which..he turns from an autistic, egocentric individual, to a societal, ethnocentric being.
2004 T. R. Sanchez-Jones in C. L. Williams & C. M. Davis Therapeutic Interaction In Nursing (2005) ii. v. 57 Ethnocentric values may make it difficult for the nurse to be objective in providing care.
Derivatives
ˌethnoˈcentrically adv.
ΚΠ
1935 J. W. Woodard Intellect. Realism & Culture Change vi. 177 There is a diminution of authoritarianism, of the supernatural, and of the ethnocentrically reified.
1976 I. M. Lewis Social Anthropol. in Perspective (1985) xi. 364 There is a constant danger here of ethnocentrically projecting Western folk assumptions.
2000 J. M. Hayes Mad Dog & Englishman 26 Rationalism..ethnocentrically rejects what it can't explain.
ˌethnocenˈtricity n. [ < ethno- comb. form + -centricity comb. form, after ethnocentric adj.; compare earlier ethnocentrism n.]
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > racial attitudes > [noun] > racism
racialism1880
racism1903
ethnocentrism1906
ethnocentricity1937
structural racism1964
systemic racism1968
1937 Amer. Athropologist 39 691 ‘Ethnocentricity’ is, indeed, an unfortunate trait of human beings.
1959 Listener 1 Jan. 27/2 Is it really necessary to resuscitate the white man's burden at the very time when so much depends upon our getting rid of this form of ethnocentricity?
2001 J. Waterman Arctic Crossing Introd. 3 Inuit philosophy—concerning other races as well as animals—lacks ethnocentricity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1861