Hispanic

The term Hispanic (Spanish: hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term.

The term commonly applies to Spaniards and Spanish-speaking (Hispanophone) populations and countries in Hispanic America (the continent) and Hispanic Africa (Equatorial Guinea and the disputed territory of Western Sahara), which were formerly part of the Spanish Empire due to colonization mainly between the 16th and 20th centuries. The cultures of Hispanophone countries outside Spain have been influenced as well by the local pre-Hispanic cultures or other foreign influences.

There was also Spanish influence in the former Spanish East Indies, including the Philippines, Marianas, and other nations. However, Spanish is not a predominant language in these regions and, as a result, their inhabitants are not usually considered Hispanic.

Hispanic culture is a set of customs, traditions, beliefs, and art forms in music, literature, dress, architecture, cuisine, and other cultural fields that are generally shared by peoples in Hispanic regions, but which can vary considerably from one country or territory to another. The Spanish language is the main cultural element shared by Hispanic peoples.

The term Hispanic derives from the Latin word Hispanicus, the adjectival derivation of Hispania, which means of the Iberian Peninsula and possibly Celtiberian origin. In English the word is attested from the 16th century (and in the late 19th century in American English).

The words Spain, Spanish, and Spaniard are of the same etymology as Hispanus, ultimately.

Hispanus was the Latin name given to a person from Hispania during Roman rule. The ancient Roman Hispania, which roughly comprised what is currently called the Iberian Peninsula, included the contemporary states of Spain, Portugal, parts of France, Andorra, and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. In English, the term Hispano-Roman is sometimes used. The Hispano-Romans were composed of people from many different Indigenous tribes, in addition to colonists from Italia. Some famous Hispani (plural of Hispanus) and Hispaniensis were the emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, Theodosius I and Magnus Maximus, the poets Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Martial and Prudentius, the philosophers Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Younger, and the usurper Maximus of Hispania. A number of these men, such as Trajan, Hadrian and others, were in fact descended from Roman colonial families.

Here follows a comparison of several terms related to Hispanic: