Ghetto
A ghetto (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɡetto]; from Venetian ghèto, ‘foundry’), often the ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of the ghetto appear across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people.
The term has deep cultural meaning in the United States, especially in the context of segregation and civil rights; as such, it has been widely used in the country to refer to inner-city neighborhoods that are mainly African American and/or poor. It is also used in some European countries to refer to poor neighborhoods.The term was originally used for the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, as early as 1516, to describe the part of the city where Jews were restricted to live and thus segregated from other people. However, early societies may have formed their own versions of the same structure; words resembling ghetto in meaning appear in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian, Germanic, Old French, and Latin. During the Holocaust, more than 1,000 Nazi ghettos were established to hold Jewish populations, with the goal of exploiting and killing the Jews as part of the Final Solution.
Ghetto (noun)
An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.
Ghetto (noun)
An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity{{,}} or race.
Ghetto (noun)
An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.
Ghetto (noun)
An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.
Ghetto (adjective)
Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.
Ghetto (adjective)
Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.
“My apartment’s so ghetto, the rats and cockroaches filed a complaint with the city!”
“I like to drive ghetto cars; if they break down you can just abandon them and pick up a new one!”
Ghetto (adjective)
Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.
Ghetto (adjective)
Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.
Ghetto (verb)
To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.
Hood (noun)
A covering for the head attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak.
Hood (noun)
A distinctively coloured fold of material, representing a university degree.
Hood (noun)
An enclosure that protects something, especially from above.
Hood (noun)
A soft top of a convertible car or carriage.
Hood (noun)
The hinged cover over the engine of a motor vehicle: known as a bonnet in other countries.
Hood (noun)
A metal covering that leads to a vent to suck away smoke or fumes.
Hood (noun)
gangster, thug.
Hood (noun)
neighborhood.
“What’s goin’ down in the hood?”
Hood (noun)
person wearing a hoodie.
Hood (verb)
To cover something with a hood.
Hood (adjective)
Relating to inner-city everyday life, both positive and negative aspects; especially people’s attachment to and love for their neighborhoods.
Hood (noun)
a covering for the head and neck with an opening for the face, typically forming part of a coat or cloak
“a jacket with a detachable hood”
Hood (noun)
a large hood-shaped piece of fabric, typically trimmed with fur or a similar material, worn over the shoulders of a university gown or a surplice to indicate the wearer’s degree.
Hood (noun)
a leather covering for a hawk’s head.
Hood (noun)
a thing resembling a hood in shape or use.
Hood (noun)
a folding waterproof cover of a car, pram, etc.
Hood (noun)
the hinged metal canopy covering the engine of a motor vehicle; the bonnet.
Hood (noun)
a canopy to protect users of machinery or to remove fumes from it.
Hood (noun)
a structure or marking resembling a hood on the head or neck of an animal
“the hood of a rearing cobra”
Hood (noun)
the upper part of the flower of a plant such as a dead-nettle.
Hood (noun)
a gangster or similar violent criminal
“I been beaten up by hoods”
Hood (noun)
a neighbourhood, especially one in an urban area
“I’ve lived in the hood for 15 years”
Hood (verb)
put a hood on or over
“she was forced into a car, hooded, and taken to a cell”