ethnic

Etymology

From Middle English ethnik, from Latin ethnicus ("pagan", "heathen"), from Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós, “of or for a nation, heathen”), from ἔθνος (éthnos, “a company", later "a people or nation, heathens”).

adj

1. Of or relating to a group of people having common racial, ancestral, national, religious or cultural origins.
   There are many ethnic Indonesians in the Netherlands
2. Characteristic of a foreign or a minority group's culture.
   I like to eat ethnic food
3. Representative of a folk or traditional mode of expression.
   Indeed, such ethnic music festivals were probably common throughout the country 2008, Ronald D. Cohen, A History of Folk Music Festivals in the United States
   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. 1990, European Review of Native American Studies Volumess 4-6
   popular music is usually positioned between classical music on the one hand and folk or ethnic music on the other. 2012, Michael Campbell., Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On
   Once you dig below the surface you discover folk, grassroots, and ethnic music throughout the United States 2012, Kip Lornell., Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions
4. (historical) Heathen, not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim.

noun

1. An ethnic person, especially a foreigner or member of an immigrant community.
2. (archaic) A heathen, a pagan.
   ...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... 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England
3. (in classical scholarship) The demonym of an Ancient Greek city.
   Coinage with the ethnic ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΥΦΡΑΤΗΝ survives from the mid-second century A.D. 2006. Cohen. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin & North Africa, 151