ghetto

noun GET-toh Rare

Origin: Origin debated; possibly from Venetian geto (foundry) — the first Jewish ghetto was near a foundry in Venice (1516)

Usage Note

Ghetto entered global usage from Italian: the Venice Ghetto of 1516 was the world's first officially designated Jewish quarter. In modern Italian it also informally describes any segregated or run-down urban area. The plural is ghetti. The word has been borrowed unchanged into English and most European languages.

Examples

"Visitiamo il ghetto ebraico di Venezia."

Natural Translation

We are visiting the Jewish ghetto of Venice.

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