Taíno

or Tai·no

[ tahy-noh ]

noun

, plural Taí·nos, (especially collectively) Taí·no

1. a member of an Indigenous Arawakan tribe of the Caribbean: the Taíno once dominated the populations of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, but today the Taíno line survives as part of mixed ethnicity.
2. the Arawakan language spoken by the early Taíno people.

Taino

/ ˈtaɪnəʊ /

noun

1. -nos-no a member of an American Indian people of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas
2. the language of this people, belonging to the Arawakan family

Word History and Origins

Origin of Taíno¹

First recorded in 1835–40; from Taíno: literally, “the noble, men of the good”