Racial means to do with the different races of people. Racial discrimination, racial equality, racial profiling.
It appears mainly in fixed phrases about fairness and its absence: racial discrimination, racial equality, racial profiling. Biologists hold that human races are not distinct biological categories; the word describes a social reality with real effects.
1adjectiveracialTo do with the different races of people.
“The school celebrates its racial and cultural diversity with a festival every year.”
racial is a quality.
Old English
rǣs
Middle English
race
English
race
English, today
racial
From race + -ial. race comes from Middle English race, from Old English rǣs. From Middle English race, partially from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-West Germanic rās; and partially from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”); both from Proto-Germanic rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Cognate with Middle Low German râs "a strong current"; whence German Low German Raas (“mad rush, rage, fury”), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”), Danish ræs, Norwegian - and Swedish ras, Norwegian rås.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA