"redefine?" the etymogy says, " little borough" --if that isn't a "neighborhood," what is? It appears to be completely devoid of any unhappy connotations. So, it appears the redefining was done later, and accepted as the original.
So if a ghetto is simply a “little borough”, then do you live in a ghetto?
What does it mean that the ghettos were abolished in Rome in 1870? Surely Jews continued to live in little boroughs after that.
Were Jews the only people to live in little boroughs? If not, then why was the word applied exclusively to Jews (until it was reapplied to refer to slum neighborhoods in the United States in the late mid-20th century)?
Sorry, I hit reply a bit too soon.
Etymology indicates the source of the word. It is related to but not coterminous with its definition. I believe, as was posted above, that the word derives fromm Venetian dialect meaning iron forge (although, since I speak neither mainstream Italian nor Venetian dialect I can’t confirm this), but regardless, the fact that a word derives from another one gives insight and color but not a full definition. This is precisely why I wrote in my first post that “functionally” the ghettos were walled and gated.