Emic
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to the analysis of a cultural system or its features from the perspective of a participant in that culture.
"A useful example of the emic-etic distinction may be made by comparing the concept “waves on the ocean or sea” from the perspective of a European American with that of a Truk Islander […] The proposed etics here might be that both cultures understand the use of waves as vehicles for surfing and as movement reflecting the transfer of energy […] certain differences, or emics exist, for European Americans the waves may be sources of beauty — the Truk Islander has learned to use them […] as a road map."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Anthropologists use interviews and participant observation to gain an emic."
Etymology
Coined by American linguist Kenneth Pike in 1954 from phonemic. * Kenneth Lee Pike (1982), Linguistic Concepts: An Introduction to Tagmemics, page 44: “Generalizing from phonemics, I coined the term emic in 1954.”
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.