diaspora

play

noun di·as·po·ra \dī-ˈas-p(ə-)rə, dē-\

Definition of diaspora

1 capitalized, Judaism a : the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside ancient Palestine after the Babylonian exileb : the area outside ancient Palestine settled by Jewsc : the Jews living outside Palestine or modern Israel members of the diaspora
2a : the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland the black diaspora to northern citiesb : people settled far from their ancestral homelands members of the African diasporac : the place where these people live

diasporic

play \ˌdī-ə-ˈspȯr-ik\ adjective

See diaspora defined for English-language learners

The Beginnings of the Word diaspora

Until recently diaspora was thought to be a fairly new word in English to describe a very old thing (its first, and principal, meaning relates to the settling of the Jewish people outside of Palestine after the Babylonian exile thousands of years ago). However, recent research has found that the word is quite a bit older than previously thought. It can be found as far back as 1594, in a translation of Lambert Daneau’s A Fruitfull Commentarie vpon the Twelue Small Prophets: “This scattering abrode of the Iewes, as it were an heauenly sowing, fell out after their returne from the captiuitie of Babylon … they are called Diaspora, that is, a scattering or sowing abrode.” Diaspora is descended from the Greek word diaspeirein, meaning “to scatter, spread about.”