Asians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. People originating from or having ancestry in the continent spanning from the Middle East through East and Southeast regions of the world ; members of populations or ethnic groups historically inhabiting this vast territory ; individuals identified by their cultural, national, or geographic ties to these diverse areas
2. Individuals whose roots can be traced to any part of the world's largest continent ; communities or people grouped according to traditions or backgrounds connected to this extensive region ; persons recognized as belonging to populations native to its many countries
3. Persons descended from or affiliated with nations stretching from western to eastern parts of the largest continent ; members of societies or collectives defined by heritage in this geographical area ; individuals categorized by origin, background, or ethnicity from the continent

Etymology: The plural "asians" is simply "Asian" with an s, and "Asian" itself is a Latin borrowing: "āsiānus" was formed from "Asia" plus the suffix "-an" (from the Latin adjectival "-ānus"). Its use as a noun for people is where the story gets interesting, because the word's meaning in English has shifted with the politics of the places that use it. In Britain and some former colonies such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, "Asians" usually refers to South Asians, because people from the Indian subcontinent formed the bulk of migrants from Asia to these places. In North America and Australasia, the collective sense covering East and Southeast Asians is generally traced to a shortened form of "Asian American". That term is credited to students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee at the University of California, Berkeley, who in 1968 founded the "Asian American Political Alliance" to unite Japanese, Chinese and Filipino American students. The term replaced "Mongoloid", though it kept the same broad racial grouping.

Synonyms: orientals, asiatic peoples, people from Asia