Where does “ghetto” come from?
Ghetto comes from Venetian ghèto, originally denoting the site of a foundry in Venice before its repurposing as a segregated Jewish quarter.
ghetto (English): An area of a city in which Jews are concentrated...
Definitions
- An area of a city in which Jews are concentrated...
Ancestry of “ghetto”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | ghetto | ghetto |
| 2 | Italian | borghetto | hamlet; shanty town |
| 3 | Italian | -etto | Alterative suffix used to form melioratives,... |
| 4 | English | -et | Used to form diminutives, loosely construed |
| 5 | Middle English | -et | Forms diminutive nouns from nouns; in some words,... |
| 6 | Old French | -et | Used to form a diminutive, masculine noun;... |
| 7 | Latin | -ātus | ed |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -ātos | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -éh₂tos | Forms adjectives from nouns, indicating the possession of a thing or a quality |