Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adj. Having existed in a region from the beginning: aboriginal forests. See Synonyms at native.
- adj. Of or relating to aborigines.
- adj. Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of Australia.
- n. An aborigine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. First; original; indigenous; primitive; native.
- adj. Of or pertaining to aborigines.
- n. An original inhabitant of any land; one of the aborigines.
- n. An animal or a plant native to the region.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. An original inhabitant; one of the people living in a country at the period of the earliest historical knowledge of it; an autochthon.
- n. A species of animals or plants which originated within a given area.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. of or pertaining to members of the indigenous people of Australia
- adj. characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from the beginning
- n. a dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived
- adj. having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state
- n. an indigenous person who was born in a particular place
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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The word aboriginal means “with the origin”—in other words, “awareness of the original intention” of life.
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{179b} The term aboriginal is here suggested, as more correct than spontaneous, the one hitherto generally used.
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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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Stories have circulated about fraud and exploitation of artists for almost as long as there was a buck to be made in aboriginal art.
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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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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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Moreover, aborigines and Chinese traders alike repeatedly requested that Chinese be allowed to live in aboriginal villages.
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"Well, here I am!" he said. 85 McGovern also found that, among the Paiwan (one of the main aboriginal peoples of Taiwan), the killing of strangers was considered an act of self-defense unless those strangers had fair hair and blue eyes — this, too, she interprets as evidence that the Dutch were revered.
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