Caucasian
Meaning
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- Of or relating to the Caucasus region or its culture, languages, and people.
- Of a racial classification pertaining to people having certain phenotypical features such as straight, curly, or wavy hair and very light to brown pigmented skin, and originating from Europe, parts of Northern Africa and Central, South, and Western Asia.
- Of a person: having a white complexion and European ancestry; white.
Synonyms
Frequency
Hyphenated as
Cau‧cas‧i‧an
Pronounced as (IPA)
/kɔːˈkeɪ.ʒən/
Etymology
From Caucasus (“mountain range in Eastern Europe between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea”) + -ian (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘from, related to, or like’, or forming nouns with the sense ‘one from, belonging to, relating to, or like’). The anthropological sense (no longer regarded as scientific) was popularized by the German anthropologist and physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), based on the belief that the first humans originated from there. Noun sense 2 (“cocktail”) was popularized by the film The Big Lebowski (1998): see the quotation.
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