diaspora
Usually Diaspora . the scattering of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity.
Often Diaspora .
the body of Jews living in countries outside Israel.
such countries collectively: the return of the Jews from the Diaspora.
Often Diaspora . any group that has been dispersed outside its traditional homeland, especially involuntarily, as Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
any group migration or flight from a country or region.
any religious group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion.
the spread or dissemination of something originally confined to a local, homogeneous group, as a language or cultural institution: the diaspora of English as a global language.
Origin of diaspora
1word story For diaspora
Diaspora first entered English in the late 17th century to describe the communities of urban, observant Jews who lived in the larger cities of the Roman Empire (e.g., Rome, Alexandria, Antioch) and were proselytized by the first generation of Christians (i.e., the Apostles and their disciples) in the mid-first century a.d. The Jewish Diaspora (usually capitalized) began with the deportation of Israelites by the Assyrian and Babylonian kings in the fifth through eighth centuries b.c.
The term originates from Greek diasporá, meaning “a dispersion or scattering,” found in Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 28:25, Psalm 126, and Psalm 147:2) and in the New Testament (John 7:35). While this specific historical sense is still used, especially in scholarly writing, modern-day definitions of the Jewish Diaspora can refer to the displacement of Jews at other times during their history, especially after the Holocaust in the 20th century. The term can also refer generally to Jews living today outside of Israel.
Diaspora also has been applied to the similar experiences of other peoples who have been forced from their homelands: for example, to the trans-Atlantic passage of Africans under the slave trade of the 17th through 19th centuries, which has been called the African Diaspora.
More recently, we find a scattering of the meaning of diaspora, which can now be used to refer not only to a group of people, but also to some aspect of their culture, as in “the global diaspora of American-style capitalism.”
popular references For diaspora
—“To the Diaspora”: A 1981 poem by African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
— Diaspora: A 1997 science fiction novel by Australian author Greg Egan.
Other words for diaspora
Opposites for diaspora
Other words from diaspora
- di·as·po·ric [dahy-uh-spawr-ik, ‐spor-ik], /ˌdaɪ əˈspɔr ɪk, ‐ˈspɒr ɪk/, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for Diaspora
/ (daɪˈæspərə) /
the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian and Roman conquests of Palestine
the Jewish communities outside Israel
the Jews living outside Israel
the extent of Jewish settlement outside Israel
(in the New Testament) the body of Christians living outside Palestine
(often not capital) a dispersion or spreading, as of people originally belonging to one nation or having a common culture
Caribbean the descendants of Sub-Saharan African peoples living anywhere in the Western hemisphere
Origin of Diaspora
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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