Ethnicists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who promotes or advocates for the interests or rights of a particular ethnic group
2. an individual who may support policies aimed at preserving cultural identities
3. a scholar or activist focused on ethnic studies and issues related to ethnicity in society

Etymology: "Ethnicists" is the plural of "ethnicist," a scholar who studies ethnic groups and ethnic identity. The word is built from two familiar parts: "ethnic," which comes from the Greek "ethnikos," meaning "heathen" or "of the nations," and the suffix "-ist," which marks a person who practises or specialises in a field, as in "linguist" or "botanist." The base word has shifted considerably over time. In Greek, "ethnos" referred to a group of people sharing customs and descent, often a nation or tribe outside one's own community, and "ethnikos" carried connotations of foreignness. Modern English "ethnic" arrived with a much narrower sense tied to shared culture and ancestry, which is why "ethnicist" now describes a researcher of that cultural identity rather than of nations in the older sense.

Synonyms: ethnologists, anthropologists