Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 October 25

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October 25

Ethnicities and National identity in England

Hello. Has a census ever been done recently in the UK for ethnicities only? I was interested to know how the inhabitants of England were identified, starting with whites etc. I'm aware of the last general census taken in 2021, published a while ago, but without race-by-race 'breakdowns'. I have not been able to find anything. I am looking for a source like the one in the link I have attached below even though it is many years old, where all sections of the country, England in this case, are surveyed. Is there yet to come out a proper census, or is it just me not having many references I've looked for wrong? Thank you. https://web.archive.org/web/20110824122026/https://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=459 Andreoto (talk) 14:00, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

There has been no more recent UK census that the 2021 one, and the data concerning ethnicity is accordingly as recent as is available. This page [1] on the Census website may answer your question, to some extent, though note that it concerns data from England and Wales only. Note also that the census does not report results by 'race' (a term no longer considered scientifically valid) but by self-identification through ethnicity. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:27, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Quote about plant names

Looking for a quote along the lines of the wisdom of our ancestors being preserved in the naming of plants. Perhaps somebody like Edward Thomas but I've drawn a blank so far. Needed for a discussion on the use of English vernacular wild flower names over Latin binomials. Alansplodge (talk) 15:57, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Geoffrey Grigson perhaps, or quoted by him? I've got his Englishman's Flora lurking about the flat somewhere. DuncanHill (talk) 17:09, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Can't find it in Grigson, but it does sound familiar. DuncanHill (talk) 18:52, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

It's the sort of thing that Nicholas Culpeper might have said, but I can't find evidence of him saying it: it's not in his Herbal. Almost any Ethnobotanist might have said something similar. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 46.65.231.103 (talk) 19:35, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks all. Gratifying to know that it wasn't staring me in the face. Alansplodge (talk) 16:10, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

William Barnes keeps suggesting himself to me, but I'm blowed if I can place it. It's the sort of sentiment he would have shared, I'm sure. DuncanHill (talk) 16:48, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

Frederick Edward Hulme, Familiar Wild Flowers, volume 4, London (1877), p. 129 [2]. 2A00:23C7:9939:E401:E5D4:4200:8CC2:2EF9 (talk) 16:44, 29 October 2023 (UTC)

I imagine now that centuries ago a botanist asked some local dweller, possibly a wise ancestor of ours, the vernacular names of some herbs. While collecting a tuft of Parapholis incurva, the botanist asked, "what is this?" The local answered, "this is sicklegrass". The botanist then wrote down, "Sickle-grass". Next, for a shoot of Polygonum aviculare, the botanist asked, "and what kind of grass is this?" The local answered, "this is not grass". The botanist wrote down, "Knot-grass".  --Lambiam 09:57, 30 October 2023 (UTC)