Also, how is "barrio" defined? And how about "shtetl?" What other enclaves of a particular ethnic nature are there, and who "owns" the terms?

Shetetl is a Yiddish word for Jewish towns that existed in central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust.

Geoff this is an excellent article. So interesting, the way the word 'ghetto' shifts from negative to positive & back, depending on the social caché of being an ethnic enclave.

shtetl

Yiddish שטעטל (shtel) means literally 'small city'; cf. German Stadt 'city'. Spanish barrio < Arabic barrī 'of an open area' < barr 'open area'; cf. Semitic root brr 'to be(come) clear, pure, white'.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd, November 30, 2015 07:51

Bethree5, I'm surprised to find the person raising the issue to be of Chinese ancestry! It sure blows the word-related stereotypes!

Many thanks, Z, for the etymology. I hadn't considered an Arabic root for "barrio," yet there are so many of them in Spanish thanks to the Moorish occupation.

I wonder how history would have played out had Ferdinand and Isabella lost.