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ghetto - 5 dictionary results

ghet⋅to

  [get-oh]
Use ghetto in a Sentence
–noun, plural -tos, -toes.
1. a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships.
2. (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.
3. a section predominantly inhabited by Jews.
4. any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment: job ghettos for women; ghettos for the elderly.
Origin:
1605–15; < It, orig. the name of an island near Venice where Jews were forced to reside in the 16th century < Venetian, lit., foundry for artillery (giving the island its name), n. deriv. of ghettare to throw < VL *jectāre; see jet 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ghet·to   (gět'ō)   
n.   pl. ghet·tos or ghet·toes
  1. A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, or social background, often because of discrimination.
  2. An often walled quarter in a European city to which Jews were restricted beginning in the Middle Ages.
  3. Something that resembles the restriction or isolation of a city ghetto: "trapped in ethnic or pink-collar managerial job ghettoes" (Diane Weathers).

[Italian, after Ghetto, island near Venice where Jews were made to live in the 16th century.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Ghetto

Ghet"to\, n. [It.] The Jews'quarter in an Italian town or city.

I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell. --Evelyn.

Ghetto

Ghet"to\, n. A quarter of a city where Jews live in greatest numbers.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : ghetto
Spanish: gueto,
German: das Ghetto,
Japanese: 少数民族居住区
More Translations »

ghetto 
1611, from It. ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," various theories of its origin include: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); Egitto "Egypt," from L. Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or It. borghetto "small section of a town" (dim. of borgo, of Gmc. origin, see borough). Extended 1892 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups. Ghetto-blaster "large portable stereo" is from 1982.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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