■ adjective
1》 relating to a group of people having a common national or cultural tradition.
2》 denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality: ~ Albanians.
3》 characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition: ~ dresses.
4》 archaic heathen.
■ noun chiefly N. Amer. a member of an ~ minority.
Derivatives
~ally adverb
~ity noun ( plural ~ities ).
Origin
ME (denoting a person not of the Christian or Jewish faith): via eccles. L. from Gk ethnikos 'heathen', from ethnos 'nation'.
Usage
In recent years ~ 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 ~ community in Birmingham . Although this usage is quite common it is better expressed by more accurate terms such as black or Asian .