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aborigine

Pronunciation: /abəˈrɪdʒɪniː/
Translate aborigine | into French | into German
Definition of aborigine

noun

  • a person, animal, or plant that has been in a country or region from earliest times.
  • (Aborigine) an aboriginal inhabitant of Australia.

Origin:

mid 19th century: back-formation from the 16th-century plural aborigines 'original inhabitants' (in classical times referring to those of Italy and Greece), from the Latin phrase ab origine 'from the beginning'

Both Aboriginal and Aborigine may be used as nouns referring to a member of an Australian Aboriginal people, but Aborigine is the commoner and is often preferred, especially in the plural.

aborigine in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of aborigine in the US English dictionary