indigenous

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Native to a land, especially before colonization.

   The Aboriginals were indigenous to Victoria before the World War.

2. 2
   adj

   Innate, inborn.

   She was a native and essential cook, as much as Aunt Chloe,—cooking being an indigenous talent of the African race.

3. 3
   adj

   Original to a geographical area.

   That style of pottery is indigenous to that region.

4. 4
   adj

   Alternative letter-case form of indigenous (“native, relating to the native inhabitants of a land”).

   Many Indigenous people use the day not only to remember the suffering inflicted in the 1620s but also to point out the struggles that Indigenous people continue to face today in the form of, on top of so much else, violence against women and girls.

5. 5
   adj

   originating where it is found

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin indigenus (“native, born in a country”), from indi- (indu-), an old derivative of in (“in”), gen- the root of gignō (“give birth to”), and English -ous. Compare indigene, Ancient Greek ἐνδογενής (endogenḗs, “born in the house”), and the separately formed piecewise doublet endogenous. Unrelated to Indian.