ethnical, a.
(ˈɛθnɪkəl)
[f. prec. + -al1.]
† 1. Of an ethnic nature or character; heathenish.
| 1547 Bp. Hooper Declar. Christ v. D iij, What..blasphemy of God, and Et[h]nycall idolatrie is this. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 67 Ethnicall sportes and pastimes. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 195 The Religion of the Peguans is Ethnicall, knowing many but false Gods. 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. ii. xx. (1852) 447 The custom of preaching at funerals may seem ethnical in its origin. |
† b. Pagan; = ethnic A. 1. Obs.
| a 1638 Mede Wks. iii. viii. 643 The Woman which escaped the fury of the Ethnical Dragon. 1659 W. Brough Sacr. Princ. 548 Should not..Ethnical Rome be lesse Babylon then the Christian. 1762 J. Brown Poetry & Mus. xiii. (1763) 237 The Subjects of the narrative..may be drawn..either from ethnical or sacred Story. |
2. Of or pertaining to race or races, their origin, and characteristics. Cf. ethnic A. 2.
| 1846 Grote Greece ii. i. II. 308 Purely upon geographical not upon ethnical considerations. 1871 Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. i. iii. 58 As far as ethnical connexion is concerned, this analogy will hold good. |
3. Pertaining to the science of races; = ethnological 2.
| 1862 D. Wilson Preh. Man i. (1865) 4 Here then are materials full of promise for the ethnical student. 1884 Publisher & Bookbuyer's Jrnl. 15 Nov. 11/2 The confused character of the prevailing ethnical literature dealing with the Sudan. |