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ethnic cleansing. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ethnic cleansing, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ethnic cleansing in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ethnic cleansing you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Possibly a calque of Serbo-Croatian etničko čišćenje, though this is probably attested later. Popularized by (and still often associated with) the wars in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s; however, versions of the phrase have been attested since the 1860s in various languages (with the earliest attestation translating directly to the phrase being Romanian purificare etnică from 1941) and it probably arose independently on numerous occasions.
Noun
ethnic cleansing (uncountable)
- The mass expulsion or killing of people belonging to one ethnic group by those of another.
1999 April 24, Martin Kettle, Alex Brummer, quoting Tony Blair, “The bombing goes on”, in The Guardian:These television stations are part of the apparatus and power of Milosevic. This is the apparatus he has used to do the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
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