quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- ghetto[ghetto 词源字典]
- ghetto: [17] English acquired ghetto from Italian, but its precise history is uncertain. Among the suggestions are that it represents Italian getto ‘foundry’, from a Jewish enclave in Venice established on the site of a medieval foundry in 1516; that it is short for Italian borghetto, a diminutive form of borgo ‘settlement outside city walls’ (to which English borough is related); and that it was an alteration of Latin Aegyptus ‘Egypt’, presumably an allusion to the captivity of the Jews in Egypt.
[ghetto etymology, ghetto origin, 英语词源] - ghetto (n.)
- 1610s, "part of a city in which Jews are compelled to live," especially in Italy, from Italian ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," of unknown origin. The various theories trace it to: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" a special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); a clipped form of Egitto "Egypt," from Latin Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or Italian borghetto "small section of a town" (diminutive of borgo, which is of Germanic origin; see borough). Extended by 1899 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups (especially blacks in U.S. cities). As an adjective by 1903 (modern slang usage from 1999). Ghetto-blaster "large, portable stereo cassette-player" is from 1982.