Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having existed in a region from the beginning: synonym: native.
- adjective Of or relating to aborigines.
- adjective Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia.
- noun An aborigine.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Existing from the origin or beginning; hence, first; original; primitive: as, aboriginal people are the first inhabitants of a country known to history.
- Pertaining to aborigines; hence, primitive; simple; unsophisticated: as, aboriginal customs; aboriginal apathy.
- In geology and botany, native; indigenous; autochthonous.
- noun An original inhabitant; one of the people living in a country at the period of the earliest historical knowledge of it; an autochthon.
- noun A species of animals or plants which originated within a given area.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An original inhabitant of any land; one of the aborigines.
- noun An animal or a plant native to the region.
- adjective First; original; indigenous; primitive; native.
- adjective Of or pertaining to aborigines.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or pertaining to members of the indigenous people of Australia
- adjective characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from the beginning
- noun a dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived
- adjective having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state
- noun an indigenous person who was born in a particular place
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The word aboriginal means “with the origin”—in other words, “awareness of the original intention” of life.
Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010
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The word aboriginal means “with the origin”—in other words, “awareness of the original intention” of life.
Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010
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The word aboriginal means “with the origin”—in other words, “awareness of the original intention” of life.
Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar Jeffrey Armstrong 2010
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{179b} The term aboriginal is here suggested, as more correct than spontaneous, the one hitherto generally used.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836
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I find it ironic that you are so critical of a brief reuter’s newsfeed even making an erroneous assumption of the term aboriginal while unquestioningly accepting de-facto editorials from the Taipei Times.
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The company was still technically at peace with all of the villages, so the governor ordered his troops not to attack the pirates if they sought refuge in aboriginal villages. 4 He soon learned, however, that "the inhabitants of the village of Mattau, which can be reached via the river of Wankan, are harboring [the] pirate junks along with 170 Chinese pirates, whom they have lodged in their houses."
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There may have been Chinese hunters, such as the pirate Yan Siqi, who is said to have died of a fever after hunting (打圍), but they were likely few, for aboriginal villages jealously guarded their hunting fields. 5 The aborigines exchanged venison and hides for salt, iron, and clothing brought by Chinese traders, many of whom sojourned in aboriginal villages.
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Note 29: Company officials might have adopted such grand public speech quite consciously to suit aboriginal political culture, for Candidius wrote glowingly of the eloquence displayed in aboriginal village meetings: "Yes, I believe Demosthenes would not have been richer and more fluent in words" (Blussé's translation, "Retribution and Remorse"). back
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Stories have circulated about fraud and exploitation of artists for almost as long as there was a buck to be made in aboriginal art.
June 2006 2006
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Of the four main aboriginal villages in the lands around the Bay of Tayouan, the company's closest ally was Sinkan, which was the smallest, having a population of around 1,000.
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Capitalize the first word and use lowercase for people when describing persons who are Indigenous or Aboriginal (eg, Indigenous people, Indigenous peoples of Canada, Aboriginal people).
Updated Guidance on the Reporting of Race and Ethnicity in Medical and Science Journals For Authors 2021
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