English Explanatory Dictionary

indigenous

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Native to a land, especially before colonization.
  2. In particular, of or relating to a people (or their language or culture) that inhabited a region prior to the arrival of people of other cultures which became dominant (e.g., through colonialism), and which maintains a distinct culture.
  3. Innate, inborn.
  4. Original to a geographical area.
adj
  1. Alternative letter-case form of indigenous (“native, relating to the native inhabitants of a land”).

Pronunciation

/ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/ ĭn-dĭj′ə-nəs ĭn-dĭj′ĭ-nəs /ɪnˈdɪd͡ʒənəs/ en-au-indigenous.ogg /ɪnˈdaɪ.d͡ʒɛ.nʊs/

Word forms

indigenous

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.

Synonyms

aboriginal autochthonous local natural connatural

Related words

endogenous indigena indigent

Derived words

indigenist indigenity indigenization indigenocide indigenously indigenous medicine indigenousness Indigenous Peoples' Day nonindigenous transindigenous Indigenous Australian

Translations

Afrikaans: inheems Armenian: բնիկ Bulgarian: местен Bulgarian: туземен Catalan: indígena Chinese Mandarin: 在地的 Dutch: inheems Dutch: autochtoon Dutch: oorspronkelijk Esperanto: indiĝena Estonian: pärismaine Finnish: alkuperäinen French: indigène French: aborigène French: autochtone Galician: indíxena Galician: aborixe Georgian: აბორიგენული Georgian: მკვიდრი Georgian: ადგილობრივი German: indigen German: einheimisch German: eingeboren German: inländisch Ancient Greek: αὐτόχθων Hebrew: יְלִידִי Icelandic: frumbyggja- Icelandic: infæddur Icelandic: innlendur Indonesian: inlander Indonesian: pribumi Indonesian: masyarakat adat Italian: indigeno Ladino: indijena Latin: indigenus Māori: taketake Norwegian Bokmål: stedegen Norwegian Bokmål: innfødt Occitan: indigèna Old English: inlendisc Old English: inlende Persian: بومی Polish: miejscowy Polish: macierzysty Portuguese: indígena Portuguese: nativo Portuguese: aborígene Portuguese: aborígine Romanian: indigen Romanian: autohton Russian: коренно́й Russian: абориге́нный Russian: ме́стный Russian: тузе́мный Russian: автохто́нный Scottish Gaelic: tùsanach Sicilian: nnìgginu Sicilian: autòttunu Sicilian: nativu Sicilian: arigginaru Spanish: indígena Tagalog: katutubo Tokelauan: tagatāfenua Tokelauan: tagatānuku Turkish: yerli
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on I Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary