Ainu

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a member of the Indigenous people native chiefly to Hokkaido and historically also to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands

   An Ainu artist explained the meaning of the carved pattern.

2. 2
   noun

   the endangered language isolate traditionally spoken by the Ainu people

   The class teaches conversational Ainu alongside traditional songs.

3. 3
   adj

   relating to the Ainu people, their language, or their culture

   The museum worked with Ainu communities to revise the exhibition.

Borrowed through Japanese Ainu from Ainu aynu, 'person' or 'human being.' Aino and its plural Ainos are historical English spellings; Ainu is the modern spelling and is normally unchanged in the plural.

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