Definitions And Dimensions Of Ethnicity

The term “ethnic” derives from two Greek words, ethnos and ethnikos. In ancient Greek, ethnos meant a number of people living together, a company, a body of men, or a band of comrades. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in Homeric and in Christian literature the word referred to a people or nation, in contrast to a king, or one nation against another or every nation of humankind. The word ethnikos was closely connected with ethnos and probably derived from it. It described people who were not “like us,” specifically, who were not Christian or Jewish but Gentile, pagan, or heathen. In early English this last word was derived from hethnic or heathenic. The concept of ethnicity is even more complex. Today the terms used by scholars to define it include “ethnic group,” “ethnic identity,” “ethnic culture,” “ethno-culture,” “nation,” “nationality,” and “nationalism.”