aborigines
/ˌæbɚˈɪdʒəniz/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.95 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The original people of a location; originally used of ancient Greek and Roman peoples.
noun
noun
The inhabitants of a location before colonization by the Europeans occurred.
name
name
The native peoples of various regions, especially the Australian Aboriginal peoples, but also the original inhabitants of Canada and Argentina. Often considered offensive.
Example Sentences
- "There seems little doubt that the aborigines of Banda were Papuans, and a portion of them still exists in the Ke islands, where they emigrated when the Portuguese first took possession of their native island. It is such people as these that are often looked upon as transitional forms between two very distinct races, like the Malays and Papuans, whereas they are only examples of intermixture."
- "AO Neville, the Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia until the 1930s, railed against the risk of the creation of a ‘third race’ of half-castes."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin aborīginēs.
Inflected Forms
the Aborigines (canonical, plural)