Taíno

American  

[tahy-noh] / ˈtaɪ noʊ /

Or Taino

noun

plural

Taínos,

plural

Taíno

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.

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Taino British  

/ ˈtaɪnəʊ /

noun

1. 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

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Etymology

Origin of Taíno

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

Example Sentences

The 65th was designated in 1920; its nickname, adopted during the Korean War, stems from Borikén, the Indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico.

From National Geographic • Nov. 10, 2023

I was interested in many things about the old Taíno mermaid legend: that Aycayia is cursed by a big, bad powerful goddess, Jagua, on behalf of other women.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 5, 2022

“And we can imagine that around 1530 or 1540, no Taíno were living in the Caribbean.”

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2021

The villagers who met the sailors were members of the Taíno, or Arawak, people, who uneasily shared the islands and coastlines of the Caribbean Sea with neighbors they called the Caribs.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Sergio tells us that the Taíno were the indigenous population on the island.

From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya