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Where does the word "genocide" come from? It comes from Greek genos, and was adopted directly into English (1940s).
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Where does the word "genocide" come from? It comes from Greek genos, and was adopted directly into English (1940s).
Genocide’s story begins in Greek: genos meant “race, kind.” Race or kind, combined with Latin -cide (killing). It reached English by 1940s as genocide. Coined by lawyer Raphael Lemkin to name the deliberate destruction of a people. Today, genocide means the deliberate killing of a large group of people of a particular nation or ethnicity.
- Stage 1 · Greek · ancient genos "race, kind", race or kind, combined with Latin -cide (killing).
- Stage 2 · English · 1940s genocide "the deliberate destruction of a national or ethnic group", coined by lawyer Raphael Lemkin to name the deliberate destruction of a people.