ethinc - adjective (Music) (Youth Culture) Of pop and rock music: inspired by, or incorporating elements of, the native music of a particular ethnic group . Especially in ethnic pop or ethnic rock, pop or rock music which fuses native musical traditions with Western rock styles. Etymology: A development of the adjective ethnic in the sense 'of or pertaining to (a particular) race'; by the mid sixties the adjective was already being used in the more general sense of 'foreign', and this development is simply an application of that sense in a particular context. History and Usage: The adjective ethnic has been applied to folk and modern music for some decades, but the fashion for ethnic elements in pop and rock music dates from the late seventies. The distinction between ethnic music and world music is often not clearly drawn. As majors attempt to follow Island's commendable packaging of ethnic music , they rely on yet another promotional push to find Africa's Bob Marley. Blitz Jan. 1989, p.
35 Shanachie, the New Jersey-based record company that has specialized in funky international ethnic pop, recently put out two Mahlathini albums. Washington Post 15 June 1990, section 2, p. 17

ethinc - adj. & n.
--adj.

1 a (of a social group) having a common national or cultural tradition. b (of clothes etc.) resembling those of a non-European exotic people.
2 denoting origin by birth or descent rather than nationality (ethnic Turks).
3 relating to race or culture (ethnic group; ethnic origins).
4 archaic pagan, heathen.

--n.

1 US a member of an (esp. minority) ethnic group.
2 (in pl., usu. treated as sing.) = ETHNOLOGY.

ethnic minority a (usu. identifiable) group differentiated from the main population of a community by racial origin or cultural background.

ethnically adv. ethnicity n. [ME f. eccl.L ethnicus f. Gk ethnikos heathen f. ethnos nation]