Caucasian

Meanings

Adjective

• Of or relating to the Caucasus region or its culture, languages, and people.
• Of a racial classification pertaining to people having certain phenotypical features such as straight, curly, or wavy hair and very light to brown pigmented skin, and originating from Europe, parts of Northern Africa and Central, South, and Western Asia.
• Of a person: having a white complexion and European ancestry; white.

Noun

• A native or inhabitant of the Caucasus.
• Synonym of White Russian
• A member of the Caucasian racial classification (adjective sense 2).
• A group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region.
• A white person.

Origin

• . The anthropological sense (no longer regarded as scientific) was popularized by the German anthropologist and physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), based on the belief that the first humans originated from there.
• Noun sense 2 (“cocktail”) was popularized by the film The Big Lebowski (1998): see the quotation.