aborigine

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a member of the original people of a country, especially Australia, before others arrived

   The film told the story of an aborigine living in the outback.

Simplified etymology

Aborigine arose in the mid-19th century as a shortening of aborigines, a 16th-century plural meaning “original inhabitants” and used in classical contexts for early peoples of Italy and Greece. Aborigines comes from the Latin phrase ab origine, “from the beginning.” Its specialized application to Aboriginal Australians dates from the 1820s.

Back-formation from Aborigines.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary