entry
aboriginal
/ˌæbəˈrɪdʒənəl/existing from the beginning; indigenous to a place
From Latin aborigines (the original inhabitants).
Word Ancestry
Latin aborīginēs was used for people imagined to have been in a land from its very beginning, and English borrowed the idea in the 1660s. The word is traditionally connected with Latin ab origine, “from the beginning,” as if these people were standing at the first page of a country’s history. By 1760, aboriginal could also function as a noun for an original inhabitant; its specifically Australian use, with a capital A, appears by 1820. That history carries a sharp colonial irony: Europeans used a word meaning “here first” while describing peoples whose lands they were colonizing. Today, “Aboriginal” most often refers to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, whose cultures and languages long predate European arrival—so the word’s central image is simple: not newcomers, but the people already there.
The Story
Latin aborīginēs was used for people imagined to have been in a land from its very beginning, and English borrowed the idea in the 1660s. The word is traditionally connected with Latin ab origine, “from the beginning,” as if these people were standing at the first page of a country’s history. By 1760, aboriginal could also function as a noun for an original inhabitant; its specifically Australian use, with a capital A, appears by 1820. That history carries a sharp colonial irony: Europeans used a word meaning “here first” while describing peoples whose lands they were colonizing. Today, “Aboriginal” most often refers to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, whose cultures and languages long predate European arrival—so the word’s central image is simple: not newcomers, but the people already there.
Kin & Kindred
From 'aborigines'·the original inhabitants; those existing from the beginning
Derived Terms
English words from this root