In its anthropological sense, Mongoloid refers to the group of peoples indigenous to central and eastern Asia, some of whom in all probability crossed to the Western Hemisphere and populated North and South America. Like the other terms proposed by anthropologists in the 18th and 19th centuries as human racial classifications, Mongoloid is now considered outdated and potentially offensive. In particular, you should take care not to confuse Mongoloid with Mongolian, which is occasionally used in the anthropological sense but which primarily refers to the central Asian region of Mongolia or to its peoples.
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The use of Mongoloid or Mongolism—capitalized or not—in a medical sense is now clearly offensive. The preferred term for the congenital disorder is now Down syndrome or, somewhat less acceptably, Down’s syndrome.
