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.
the Arawakan language spoken by the early Taíno people.
a member of an American Indian people of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas
the language of this people, belonging to the Arawakan family
First recorded in 1835–40; from Taíno: literally, “the noble, men of the good”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Carucci’s mother, a freestyle dancer raised in the Bronx, is Puerto Rican with Taíno and African ancestry.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 15, 2023
On the island of Hispaniola, for example, where both the Spanish and the French established sugar plantations, the native Taíno population was at least several hundred thousand strong when Columbus arrived in 1492.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
A vitrine of pre-Columbian Taíno artifacts, all different forms of axes, rest nearby.
From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2022
Vines, branches, and plants weave together into a thicket that is longer and thicker than the hull of the Taíno.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
