genocide
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English [edit]
Alternative forms [edit]
- Genocide (especially in particular instances)
Etymology [edit]
Coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, to describe what the Turkish government (ca 1915–18) perpetrated against the Armenian people, now called the Armenian Genocide. From the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) or Latin gēns (“tribe, clan”) (as in genus), + -cide (“killing, killer”).
Pronunciation [edit]
- IPA: /ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaid/
Noun [edit]
genocide (countable and uncountable; plural genocides)
- The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status, or other particularity.
- Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or a significant portion of, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Usage notes [edit]
Genocide is defined in various laws, and used in varying ways; characterization of an act as “genocide” is a strong condemnation, and may prove contentious.
Narrowly speaking, genocide was coined to mean, and generally used to mean in law, the destruction of an ethnic group qua group, whether killing of all members of the group or other means, such as dispersing the group. In common usage, “genocide” is often used to mean “systematic mass killing”, whether or not the purpose is the destruction of the group or some other purpose, such as terrorizing the group.
Derived terms [edit]
Related terms [edit]
- See also: -cide: Derived terms
Translations [edit]
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