Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent fromEngland,English culture, theEnglish people or theEnglish language, such as in the termAnglosphere. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people ofBritish descent inAnglo-America, theAnglophone Caribbean,South Africa,Australia, andNew Zealand. It is used inCanada to differentiate betweenFrancophone Canadians, located mainly inQuebec but found across Canada, andAnglophone Canadians, also located across Canada, including in Quebec. It is also used in theUnited States to distinguish theHispanic and Latino population from thenon-Hispanic white majority.
Anglo is aLate Latinprefix used to denoteEnglish- in conjunction with anothertoponym ordemonym. The word isderived from Anglia, the Latin name for England and still used in the modern name for its eastern region,East Anglia. It most likely refers to theAngles, aGermanic people originating in the northGermanpeninsula ofAngeln, that is, the region of today's Lower Saxony that joins theJutland Peninsula. The first recorded use of the word in Latin is in Tactitus's Germania, where he mentions the "Angles" as aSuebian tribe living near the Elbe.Bede writes that the Angles came from a place called Angulus "which lies between the province of theJutes and theSaxons." Anglia and England both meanland of theEnglish.
Anglo is often used to refer toBritish in historical and other contexts after theActs of Union 1707, for example theAnglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 between theUnited Kingdom and theRepublic of Ireland, which established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, a forum made up of officials from the British and Irish governments, and theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 between the British government and the Dutch, not an English government. Typical examples of this use are also shown below, where non-English people from the British Isles are described as beingAnglo.
Anglo is not an easily defined term. For traditionalists, there arelinguistic problems with using the word as an adjective or noun on its own. For example, the purpose of the-o ending is to enable the formation of a compound term (for exampleAnglo-Saxon meaning of English andSaxon origin), so there is only an apparent parallelism between, for example,Latino and Anglo. However, asemantic change has taken place in many English-speaking regions so that in informal usage the meanings listed below are common. The definition is changed in each region which defines how it is identified.
The termAnglo-African has been used historically toself-identify by people of mixedBritish and African ancestry born in theUnited States and inAfrica.[1][2][3][4]The Anglo-African andThe Weekly Anglo-African were the names of newspapers published byAfrican Americanabolitionist Robert Hamilton (1819–1870) inNew York during theAmerican Civil War era.[5][6][7]The Anglo-African was also the name of a newspaper published inLagos (now part ofNigeria) from 1863 to 1865. It was founded and edited by Robert Campbell (1829–1884), aJamaican born son of aScottish father andMulatto mother.[8][9] The term has also been used historically to describe people living in theBritish Empire in Africa.[10][11]The Anglo-African Who's Who and Biographical Sketch-Book published inLondon in 1905 includes details of prominentBritish andAfrikaner people in Africa at that time.[12]
In Australia,Anglo is used as part of the termsAnglo-Australian andAnglo-Celtic, which refer to the majority of Australians, who are of English, Scottish,Welsh and Irish descent.[13]
InCanada, and especially inCanadian French,Anglophone is widely used to designate someone whosemother tongue is English, as opposed toFrancophone, which describes someone whose mother tongue is French, and toAllophone, which describes someone whose mother tongue is a language other than English or French.Anglo-Métis is also sometimes used to refer to an ethnic group.
Jewish immigrants makingAliyah to theState of Israel are sometimes referred to asAnglos.[14]
InScotland, and in related cultures, the termAnglo-Scot, sometimes shortened toAnglo or Anglos, is used to refer to people with some permutation of mixed Scottish-English ancestry, association and/or birth; such as English people of Scottish descent, Scottish people of English descent, or heavilyAnglicised members of theScottish nobility who are indistinguishable from English members of theBritish upper class and speak with aReceived Pronunciation, or other elite Southern accent.
A great number of Anglo-Scots have made their mark in the fields of sport, politics, law, diplomacy, theMilitary history of the United Kingdom, medicine, engineering, technical invention,maritime history, geographical exploration, journalism and on the stage and screen. The London-born writerIan Fleming being one such example of this mixed ancestry. HisJames Bond character is the preeminent fictional example of theAnglo-Scot.
At the same time, however,John Lorne Campbell, whose decades long work as a collector alongside his wife, AmericanethnomusicologistMargaret Fay Shaw, preserved countless works ofCanadian Gaelic andScottish Gaelic literature,Hebridean mythology and folklore, andScottish traditional music that may otherwise have been lost, was an Anglo-Scot. Campbell was raised to speak only Received Pronunciation English as anArgyllshire landlord at the height of theBritish Empire, but his decision as a young adult to reject the traditionallypro-English and pro-Empire politics of his family in favor ofScottish nationalism,decolonisation, and fighting for the survival of his threatened ancestralheritage language ofScottish Gaelic, may well be said to have changed the course of modernScottish history.[15] The modern Gaelicliterary andlanguage revivals, as well as the growing use ofimmersion schools in both Scotland andNova Scotia are his legacy.
The termAnglo-Scot is often used to describe Scottish sports players who are based in England or playing for English teams, or vice versa. This is especially so in football, notably inRugby union, where theAnglo Scots were a Scottish non-native select provincial District side that competed in theScottish Inter-District Championship.
In many parts of the United States, especially those with high Latino populations, the term "Anglo" is applied to white Americans who are not ofLatino origin.[16][17] "Anglo" is short for "Anglo American",[citation needed][dubious –discuss] is used as a synonym fornon-Latino whites; that isEuropean Americans, most of whom speak the English language, even those who are not necessarily of English or British descent.[18] Some non-Latino whites in the United States who speak English but are not of English or British ancestry do not identify with the term "Anglo" and find the term offensive.[citation needed] For instance, someCajuns in southernLouisiana use the term to refer to white people who do not haveFrancophone backgrounds.[citation needed]Irish Americans, the second largest self-identified ethnic group in the United States followingGerman-Americans, also sometimes take umbrage at being called "Anglo".[citation needed]
Although conceptions of "Anglo" identity vary from country to country, the below table provides estimates of native English-speaking "white" populations by country.
| Country | Population estimate | Percent of total | Data year |
|---|---|---|---|
 United States | 193,110,078[19][a] | 58% | 2023 |
 United Kingdom | 52,340,183[20][21][22][23][24][b] | 78% | 2021/2022 |
 Canada | 18,361,495[25][c] | 53% | 2016 |
 Australia | 17,407,420[26][27][d] | 74% | 2016/2020 |
 Ireland | 3,561,533[28][29][30][31][e] | 76% | 2016 |
 New Zealand | 3,261,930[32][33][f] | 69% | 2018 |
 South Africa | 1,651,262[34][g] | 3% | 2011 |
 Spain | 268,957[35][h] | 1% | 2020 |
 Israel | 227,000[36][i] | 4% | 2015 |
 France | 145,900[37][j] | >0% | 2017 |
| Total | 290,335,758 |
A startling feature in the rhetoric of black institutional leadership on the eve of the Civil War was the popularity of the term, 'Anglo-African.' ... By 1900, 'Anglo-African' had been replaced by 'Afro-American' and such variants as 'Euro-African', and 'Negro-Saxon'.
The festival was to be given at Gloucester with Coleridge-Taylor himself conducting the three choirs. As it was advertised that the conductor was an Anglo-African, the audience expected a white man. What was its surprise to see instead a dark-skinned Negro, quick-moving, slight of build, with an enormous head of high, thick, frizzly hair, broad nostrils, flashing white teeth, and a winning smile.
Because the area had only been colonised in the 1890s, the Anglo-African community of Nyasaland during the 1930s, for the most part, consisted of first-generation persons of 'mixed' racial descent. This is reflected in their preference of the term 'Anglo-African' over 'coloured' and 'half-caste'. Although all three were used, 'Anglo-African' had the advantage of emphasising their partial descent from colonists.
At different historical junctures in Northern Rhodesia's racialized landscape, persons of mixed descent were categorized accordingly: 'half-caste,' 'Anglo-African,' 'Indo-African,' 'Euro-African, 'Eurafrican,' and 'Coloured.'
'I do see a time when the South African colonies may be brought together into one great Anglo-African people.'
Sir Harry Johnston, the former Governor General of Central British Africa said after the conquest of German East Africa in the 'Daily News': ... Another well known Anglo-African and Colonial politician E. D. Morel in an article in the 'Labour Leader' entitled 'The Way Out' writes as follows: ...'Harry Johnston (1858–1927) andE. D. Morel (1873–1924) are referred to asAnglo-Africans in this publication.
But we may perhaps claim that, incomplete as it is, it contains many records of Anglo-Africans which are not readily available in any similar work of reference, and it is only necessary to add that we hope to remedy its sins of omission and commission in future editions.