OxfordAmericanDictionary (En-En)
Caucasian [kô'kāzhən]
1. Cau·ca·sian
1) often offensive of or relating to one of the traditional divisions of humankind, covering a broad group of peoples from Europe, western Asia, and parts of India and North Africa
Origin: so named because the German physiologist Blumenbach believed that it originated in the Caucasus region of southeastern Europe
■ white-skinned; of European origin
2) of or relating to the Caucasus
3) of or relating to a group of languages spoken in the region of the Caucasus, of which thirty-eight are known, many not committed to writing. The most widely spoken is Georgian, of the small South Caucasian family, not related to the three North Caucasian families
2. Cau·ca·sian often offensive a Caucasian person
■ a white person; a person of European origin
•• Usage In the racial classification as developed by anthropologists in the 19th century, Caucasian (or Caucasoid) included peoples whose skin color ranged from light (in northern Europe) to dark (in parts of North Africa and India). Although the classification is outdated and the categories are now not generally accepted as scientific (see usage at Australoid and Mongoloid ), the term Caucasian has acquired a more restricted meaning. It is now used, esp. in the U.S., as a synonym for ‘white or of European origin,’ as in the following citation: the police are looking for a Caucasian male in his forties
[свернуть]