Editing Ghetto (section)

== Etymology and name ==
The word ''ghetto'' originates from the [[Venetian language|Venetian]] ''[[Venetian Ghetto|ghetto]]'', the Jewish quarter in Venice's [[Cannaregio]] district where Jews were legally confined following a 1516 decree.<ref name="OED">''[[Oxford English Dictionary|Oxford English Dictionary Online]]'' (2024), s.v. ''ghetto'' ''(n. & adj.).''</ref> In the 16th century, [[Italian Jews]], including those in Venice, commonly used the unrelated Hebrew term ''ḥāṣēr'' ('courtyard') to refer to a ghetto.<ref name="OED" /> By 1855, the term ''ghetto'' had been extended to refer to "any area occupied predominantly by a particular social or ethnic group, especially a densely populated urban area which is subject to social and economic pressures, tending to restrict its demographic profile."<ref name="OED" />

The etymology of the Italian ''ghetto'' has long been debated among linguists, with no single theory achieving universal acceptance.<ref name="Liberman">{{Cite web |last=Liberman |first=Anatoly |author-link=Anatoly Liberman |date=2009 |title=Why Don't We Know the Origin of the Word Ghetto? |url=https://blog.oup.com/2009/03/ghetto/ |website=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Although often cited, the idea that it derives from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[get (divorce document)|''gēṭ'']] ('letter of divorce'; because the ghetto separated Jews from the rest of the population) is considered a [[folk etymology]].<ref name="Liberman" /><ref name="OED" /> Similarly, the Italian variant ''ghet'', found in some Jewish notarial documents from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, seems to be a folk-etymological modification of ''ghetto'', influenced by the Hebrew ''gēṭ''.<ref name="OED" />

Another commonly held hypothesis, mentioned by the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], proposes that the term comes from an unattested Italian ''*gheto'' ('foundry'; cf. Italian ''getto'' 'the process of founding or casting metal'; 14th cent.), from post-classical Latin ''iectus'' or ''iactus'' (attested in a 1295 Venetian source referring to the locality), which could be compared to post-classical Latin ''ghetus'' or ''gettus'' (attested from 1306 in Venetian sources referring to the locality).<ref name="OED" /> However, linguist [[Anatoly Liberman]] argues that this explanation fails to account for the problematic phonetic change from Latin ''i-'' to Italian ''g-'' ~ ''gh-'', and that there is no certainty that ''getto'' ever meant 'foundry' in the Venetian dialect.<ref name="Liberman" /> Alternatively, Liberman has suggested that in some Romance-speaking regions a slang borrowing from the Germanic ''gata'' ('street' or 'narrow street') may have existed in various forms, which eventually evolved into the Italian ''ghetto''. Originally, the term may have carried a derogatory sense, referring to the impoverished quarters of exiled Venetian Jews. Over time, folk etymology further shaped its meaning, associating it with ideas like cannon foundries and separation.<ref name="Liberman" />

Other suggestions, such as that the word is a shortening of ''Egitto'' ('Egypt') or ''borghetto'' ('small settlement'), or that it is related to the Old French ''guect'' ('guard'), are rejected by linguists as speculative and unconvincing.<ref name="Liberman" /><ref name="OED" /> Additional proposals derive the term from ''ghectus'' (understood as the Latinized form of Yiddish ''gehektes'' 'enclosed') or from the Latin neuter ''Giudaicetum'' ('Jewish'), but they too lack sufficient phonetic support.<ref name="Liberman" />[[File:Ingresso della Giudecca di Caltagirone.jpg|thumb| Jewish quarter of [[Caltagirone]], [[Sicily]]|335x335px]]