ethnic cleansing

Possibly a calque of Serbo-Croatian etničko čišćenje, though this is probably attested later. Originally used of (and still often associated with) the wars in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

ethnic cleansing (uncountable)

1. The mass expulsion or killing of people belonging to one ethnic group by those of another.
   • 1999 April 24, Martin Kettle; Alex Brummer, quoting Tony Blair, “The bombing goes on”, in The Guardian‎:

     These television stations are part of the apparatus and power of Milosevic. This is the apparatus he has used to do the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

• ethnic purge (countable)

• religious cleansing
• genocide
• holocaust
• Holocaust
• mass murder
• Appendix:American Dialect Society most outrageous words of the year