This article examines the lexical, discursive, and semiotic mechanisms through which contemporary media discourse and caricature in North Africa contribute to the construction, reproduction, or contestation of colonial-inherited otherness. More specifically, the study identifies how these mechanisms continue to shape representations of identity and difference. To achieve this objective, the study draws on a composite corpus including 19th–20th century dictionaries, French- and Spanish-language press articles, and contemporary cartoons. The analysis combines diachronic lexicography, critical discourse analysis, and visual semiotics within a theoretical framework that articulates ethnolinguistics, postcolonial, and decolonial studies. The findings indicate that examination of the semantic trajectories of key ethnonyms (‘Moro/Maure,’ ‘indigène,’ ‘Berbère,’ ‘Arabe’) reveals a persistent colonial sedimentation in contemporary media vocabulary. In addition, five recurring discursive strategies are identified: metonymic naming, euphemistic modalization, dehumanizing metaphor, culture/race slippage, and enunciative erasure. Moreover, semiotic analysis of cartoons distinguishes three positions: stereotype reproduction, critique through mise en abyme, and subversive self-representation. Overall, these findings confirm a twofold dynamic: persistence of colonial lexical heritage alongside emerging counter-discourses of reclamation. Consequently, the study advocates for integrating critical ethnolinguistics into educational curricula and for more reflexive media practices.