Also called Australian Aborigine. Often Offensive. a member of any of the peoples who are the earliest known inhabitants of Australia, or one of their descendants. Also
Sometimes Offensive. one of the original or earliest known inhabitants of a region, or one of their descendants.
the Aborigines of Canada and Greenland.
aborigines, the original, native fauna or flora of a region.
Also called: Aboriginal. a member of the indigenous people who were living in Australia when European settlers arrived
any of the languages of this people See also Australian
Aborigine, the noun specifically meaning “an Indigenous inhabitant of Australia,” is an outdated and often offensive term: Don't say the Aborigines of Melbourne and Sydney. Instead, use the related adjective Aboriginal, which is preferred and acceptable, and say, the Aboriginal Australians of Melbourne and Sydney. Similarly, the noun use of Aboriginal with specific reference to Australia is also often offensive, as in Australian Aboriginals. Again, you can use the adjectival form: Aboriginal Australians.
First recorded in 1540–50; by back formation from aborigines, from Latin Aborīginēs “the pre-Roman inhabitants of Italy,” probably alteration of an earlier ethnonym by association with ab origine
If you’re an aborigine in a country, that means you were there first. Use the word to refer to someone or something that has been there since the beginning. The word aborigine traces back to the Latin ab origine, meaning "from the beginning," and as you might guess, this noun refers to something that has been there from the start. Aborigine is most often used to refer to a native group that has a longstanding historic or cultural tie to an area or country, unlike other groups that may have entered later to colonize the region. If the word is capitalized, it refers to someone belonging to the group of people that first inhabited Australia.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She, too, was an Aborigine who had been taken from her parents.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
Since then, Gosch, who is mixed African American and Aborigine, has grown increasingly alarmed at Trump emboldening overt bigotry.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 21, 2020
With Aborigine permission, the team reexcavated the site in 2012 and 2015 with painstaking stratigraphic controls.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 19, 2017
Plains Aborigine groups spent years petitioning for official recognition, even appealing to the United Nations.
From Slate ● May 8, 2017
One good example is the huge variety the first European settlers found among the Aborigine peoples of Australia.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
When he finally does get to talk with Christopher Sunday, the aborigine asks if he really believes Kevin Sr. can stop the flood with a song.
From New York Times ● May 28, 2017
She points out that apart from Australia's aborigine population everyone here has immigrant roots.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2013
Open: Players to Watch How the Daughter of an Ancient Race Made It Out of the Australian Outback A 1971 article on Evonne Goolagong, the first Australian aborigine to play serious competitive tennis.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 2013
Her shorter stories are her best, and in tales of Indian, settler, miner and badman, she subtly suggests the tragedy of collision between aborigine and invader, and sometimes the more complicated tragedy of their collusion.
From Time Magazine Archive
And while he debated, Smoke suffered from secret worry lest this stubborn aborigine would persist in being hanged.
From Smoke Bellew by London, Jack
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
