ghetto [E17th] Italian getto ‘a foundry’ is probably the source of this word for a part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group. The first ghetto was established in 1516 on the site of a foundry in Venice. Alternatively, it may come from Italian borghetto, meaning ‘a little borough’. In Italy the word referred to the quarter of a city to which Jews were restricted, a use that became more widespread elsewhere, as in the Warsaw ghetto.