diaspora

noun

di·​as·​po·​ra dī-ˈa-sp(ə-)rə 

dē-

plural diasporas

1

often Diaspora plural Diasporas Judaism

a

: the Jews living outside Israel

… contributions made by the Diaspora to Israel's well-being …

—Idan Roll

He is currently writing a series about the multi-generational Jewish Diaspora …

—Bridget Arsenault

b

: the settling of scattered communities of Jews outside ancient Palestine after the Babylonian exile

Sephardi Jews began their diaspora into lands including North Africa and Anatolia in the late 15th century …

—Brendan Lavell

c

: the area outside ancient Palestine settled by Jews

The history of the Jewish people has been precisely a journey … out of ancient Babylon to the promised land, into the Diaspora, and then a sojourning in nearly all the lands of the world's nations …

—Sharon L. Coggan

2

or less commonly Diaspora

a

: people settled far from their ancestral homelands

members of the African diaspora

The Government said the aim of the trips is to "connect with Irish communities overseas and emphasise the importance of our Diaspora".

—Jennifer Bray

b

: the places where people settled and established communities far from their ancestral homelands

The festival features 12 films from across the Caribbean and its diasporas: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Martinique, the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and the Bahamas …

—Daily News (New York)

c

: the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland

the Black diaspora from the rural South to northern cities

3

: the fact or condition of being a member of a diaspora

But centuries of migration for many mean many live in diaspora, and not always—Jew or not—experiencing diaspora as exile.

—Melanie Kaye

Written from her point of view as an Arab in diaspora, [Reem] Assil takes readers on a journey through her Palestinian and Syrian roots, showing how her heritage has inspired her recipes …

—Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

diasporic

ˌdī-ə-ˈspȯr-ik 

adjective

Unlike in India where festivities are public and widespread, diasporic celebrations are more regulated to specific spaces and times.

—Rina Arya

Did you know?

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.”

Examples of diaspora in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Austria, around 100,000 Syrians currently live in the country, one of the largest diaspora communities in Europe. —Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2024

Ever since the opening up of the continent’s major economies in the 1990s, the African diaspora has recognized the opportunities on the home continent and have brought back their experiences collected abroad, melding them with traditional cues and wisdom. —Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 Dec. 2024

India has the world’s largest diaspora, with some 18 million people living outside their nation of birth, according to the UN. —Amala Balakrishner, CNBC, 28 Nov. 2024

The former university associate professor has since joined a diaspora of anti-Putin dissidents who continue to oppose the war from around the world while in exile from Russia. —Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 24 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Greek, dispersion, from diaspeirein to scatter, from dia- + speirein to sow

First Known Use

1594, in the meaning defined at sense 1b