Asian
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈeɪʒən/
ipa: /ˈeɪʃən/
ipa: /ˈæɪʒən/
ipa: /ˈæɪʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
rhymes: -eɪʒən
Forms: form: Asians
Etymology: From Latin āsiānus. The popular American definition referring to East and Southeast Asians collectively seems to be a shortened form of "Asian American", a term whose origins activists and academics trace back to 1968 and University of California, Berkeley (UCLA) students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who, inspired by the Black Power Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War, founded the "Asian American Political Alliance" as a way to unite Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino American students on campus. It replaced the term "Mongoloid", but still continued the racial grouping of "Mongoloid". South Asians are also sometimes called "Asian" in the English settler colonies (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) but rarely (if ever) Near Easterners and Central Asians. The British term exclusively referring to South Asians was due to South Asians forming a majority of immigrants from the continent of Asia in the United Kingdom. By surface analysis, Asia + -an.
Senses: examples: text: Hate crimes and attacks on Asians have captured the local news and the national attention since 2020, producing a stream of content that showed innocent people being attacked and belittled in never-ending variations on the same violent theme.
ref: 2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, MEL Magazine:
glosses: A person from the continent of Asia, or a descendant thereof - especially:
A person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia, occasionally South Asia.
examples: text: If radio and television programmes are anything to go by, Asians in Britain get up early on a Sunday.
ref: 1987 May, Paul Oliver, “Movie Mahal: Indian cinema on ITV Channel 4”, in Popular Music, →DOI, page 215:
text: Were there Taliban beheading people? I didn't tell my parents, but I flinched if an Asian-looking man came close.
ref: 2013, Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala:
glosses: A person from the continent of Asia, or a descendant thereof - especially:
A person from or with ancestry in South Asia.
glosses: A domestic cat of a breed similar to the Burmese.
Synonyms: sense: person from Asia
word: Oriental
sense: person from Asia
word: Asiatic
sense: person from east Asia
word: East Asian
sense: person from east Asia
word: Oriental
sense: person from east Asia
word: Oriental Asian
sense: person from east Asia
word: Chinese
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: South Asian
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: Desi
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: Asian Indian
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: East Indian
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: Indian
sense: person from the Indian subcontinent
word: Pakistani
word: Asian
Hypernyms: word: inhabitant
word: person
word: mongoloid
Hyponyms: word: One of a supernational region within Asia
word: Central Asian
word: East Asian
word: Korean
word: Siberian
word: South Asian
word: Southeast Asian
word: West Asian
word: One of a transcontinental nation partially within Asia
word: Armenian
word: Azerbaijani
word: Georgian
word: Russian
word: Turk
word: One of a country or nation within Asia
word: Afghani
word: Asian Indian
word: Bahraini
word: Bangladeshi
word: Bengali
word: Bhutanese
word: Bruneian
word: Burmese
word: Cambodian
word: Chinese
word: Emirati
word: Filipina
word: Filipino
word: Indian
word: Indonesian
word: Iranian
word: Iraqi
word: Israeli
word: Japanese
word: Jordanian
word: Kazakh
word: Khmer
word: Kuwaiti
word: Kyrgyz
word: Laotian
word: Lebanese
word: Malaysian
word: Maldivian
word: Mongol
word: Mongolian
word: Myanmarese
word: Nepalese
word: North Korean
word: Omani
word: Pakistani
word: Qatari
word: Saudi
word: Saudi Arabian
word: Singaporean
word: South Korean
word: Sri Lankan
word: Syrian
word: Taiwanese
word: Tajik
word: Thai
word: Timorese
word: Turkmen
word: Uzbek
word: Vietnamese
word: Yemeni
word: One of a partially-recognized or unrecognized country or nation within Asia
word: Palestinian
word: One of a former country or nation within Asia
word: Assyrian
word: Babylonian
word: Cappadocian
word: Galatian
word: Hejazi
word: Hittite
word: Israelite
word: Manchurian
word: Moghul
word: Mughal
word: Parthian
word: Phoenician
word: Phrygian
word: Pontic
word: Sikkimese
word: Tibetan
word: Turkestani