Latino

How to spell latino

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce latino

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does latino mean?

1. nounA person of Latin American origin or descent, especially a man or boy.
2. adjectiveRelating to people of Latin American origin or their culture.

Latino in a sentence

• noun

  The festival celebrated the music of every latino in the city.

• adjective

  The restaurant serves latino cuisine from across Central and South America.

• noun

  As a proud latino, he taught his children to speak Spanish at home.

• adjective

  The radio station built its audience among latino communities in the region.

Where does latino come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

This word comes directly from Spanish, where it is a clipped form of latinoamericano, meaning 'Latin American'. The deeper root is the Latin adjective Latinus, which originally meant 'of Latium', the region of central Italy around Rome where the Latin language was first spoken. Over centuries the term broadened from the people of Latium to the wider family of peoples and languages descended from Latin, which is how 'Latin America' came to name the parts of the Americas where Spanish and Portuguese took hold. English adopted 'latino' from American Spanish in the twentieth century as a label for people of Latin American heritage, keeping the Spanish ending. Because it is borrowed whole, the spelling stays simple and phonetic, with no doubled letters or silent quirks; the one thing to watch is the feminine form 'latina' that exists alongside it.

How the word is built

• latino (Spanish, shortened from latinoamericano: Latin American), itself from Latin Latinus 'of Latium'