‘Xenophobia’ vs. ‘Racism’

xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, while racist broader meaning, including “the belief that racial differences confer the inherent superiority of a particular race.” While they are similar, they are different enough that one person can be both xenophobic and racist.

It’s never a good sign when we start to see a sharp increase in lookups for two closely related and unwelcome terms like racist And xenophobia, as was the case late with the rise of COVID-19 and the subsequent global pandemic. However, our position, as a dictionary, is not to judge the words being looked up (or the people looking them up), but instead to provide as much information as possible. about them as much as we can.

Xenophobia vs Racism

xenophobia is “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or anything foreign or foreign.” racist has a slightly broader range of meanings, including “the belief that race is the primary determinant of human characteristics and abilities and that racial differences confer an inherent superiority of a race” particular” and “a political or social system founded on racial discrimination.” It should be noted that the meanings of these two words are different enough that a person (or thing, such as a policy) could very easily be both. racist And xenophobia.

xenophobia definition

‘Xenophobia’ comes from the Greek words ‘xenos’ (“stranger” or “guest”) and ‘phobos’ (“fear” or “flight”).

Both words are new words added to our language; definitely newer than the condition they describe. racist did not appear in print before the early 20th century, and xenophobia only a few decades older.

Here, however, as in other cases, we are inclined to think that intelligent xenophobia is clearly preferable to xenophobia, which is inevitable and always less intelligent. – The Daily News (London, England), April 12, 1880

It is also true that in Hungary the Nationalists have ties to the Fascists, and call on all Hungarians to “wake up”. But in general, the countries included in this survey show little sign of being severely affected by Racism.—S sley Huddleston, Christian Science Screen (Boston, MA), October 21, 1932

Etymology of Xenophobia

xenophobia comes from the Greek words xenos (can be translated as “stranger” or “guest”) and obsess (meaning “fear” or “flight”). There are a large number of words in English that are based on obsess (some of which can be seen here). Xenos gave us much fewer words; This root word includes xenophobia (“towards or prefers a culture other than one’s own”) and xenial (“of, relating to, or constituting hospitality or the relationship between host and guest and especially between the Ancient Greeks between people in different cities”).

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Semantic overlap

Again, while it is certainly possible to distinguish between xenophobia And racist At some level, it is also possible that these words can be used almost interchangeably. Each word can also have some degree of semantic overlap with vernaculardefined as “a policy that favors indigenous populations over immigrants” or “the revival or maintenance of indigenous culture, especially as opposed to acculturation.”

Please note that there are many words whose definitions are not accepted or used by all speakers of a language. racist And xenophobia are likely two such specimens, and serve as reminders of both human mayhem and human vocabulary.

Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn

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