autochthon

[aw-tok-thuhn]

noun

plural

autochthons, autochthones 

1. an aboriginal inhabitant.

2. Ecology.,  one of the indigenous animals or plants of a region.

3. Geology.,  a geological formation formed in the region where found.

autochthon

/ -θɒn, ɔːˈtɒkθən /

noun

1. (often plural) one of the earliest known inhabitants of any country; aboriginal

2. an animal or plant that is native to a particular region

Word History and Origins

Origin of autochthon¹

First recorded in 1640–50; from Greek autóchthōn “of the land itself,” equivalent to auto- auto- ¹ + chthṓn “the earth, land, ground”

Word History and Origins

Origin of autochthon¹

C17: from Greek autokhthōn from the earth itself, from _auto- + khthōn the earth

Example Sentences

Here, the conflict escalated sharply at the beginning of the year, after candidates in national elections encouraged the autochthon – popularly known as the Pygmies – to return to the forest.

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But now that there is evidence to indicate that the Terran Colony was an experiment, the planting of one Hainish Normal group on a world with its own proto-hominid autochthones, the possibility cannot be ignored.

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The Castilian tongue is indeed Latin, but I fancy that the people of Spain are as much the children of the soil—autochthones—as the Athenians themselves.

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As a rule the European peoples regarded themselves in antiquity as autochthones if they did not look upon themselves as immigrants from regions within Europe to the territories they inhabited in historic times.

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In a foregoing chapter I stated that the Japanese, whatever ethnological interpretation be given to them, can hardly be considered as autochthons.

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