 The term "ethnic" is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος "ethnos" (more precisely, from the adjective ἐθνικός "ethnikos", which was loaned into Latin as "ethnicus").The inherited English language term for this concept is "folk", used alongside the latinate "people" since the late Middle English period.In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, "ethnic" was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian oikumene), as the Septuagint used "ta ethne" ("the nations") to translate the Hebrew "goyim" "the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews".