GHETTO

ghetto

(noun) a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions

ghetto

(noun) formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live; “the Warsaw ghetto”

ghetto

(noun) any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping; “the relative security of the gay ghetto”; “no escape from the ghetto of the typing pool”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

ghetto (plural ghettos or ghettoes or ghetti)

An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)

An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.

An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.

(figurative, sometimes pejorative) An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.

Synonyms

• (often impoverished area of a city): see slum

• (figurative): ivory tower (academic ghetto)

Adjective

ghetto (comparative more ghetto, superlative most ghetto)

Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.

(slang, informal) Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.

(US, informal) Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.

Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.

Verb

ghetto (third-person singular simple present ghettoes, present participle ghettoing, simple past and past participle ghettoed)

To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.

Source: Wiktionary


Ghet"to, n. Etym: [It.]

Definition: The Jews'quarter in an Italian town or city. I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell. Evelyn.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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