aborigines
(æbəˈrɪdʒɪniːz, -ɪz)
sing. aborigine (see etym.).
[A purely L. word, applied to those who were believed to have been the inhabitants of a country ab origine, i.e. from the beginning (see origin). At first only in the pl.; for the sing. aboriginal has been used, also aborigen, aborigin; and aborigine (ˌæbəˈrɪdʒɪniː), which, seeming to be more in accordance with ordinary Eng. analogies, is the usual form, though etymologically as indefensible as serië or indicè as a sing. of series, indices.]
1. a. The original inhabitants of a country; originally, the race of the first possessors of Italy and of Greece, afterwards extended to races supposed to be the first or original occupants of other countries.
| α 1547 J. Harrison Exhort. to Scottes (1873) 214 The old latins..callyng themselfes Aborigines, that is to saie: a people from the beginnyng. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 9 Diodorus and others..would have the Britans to be..meere Aborigines; that is, Homelings and not forren brought in. 1735–8 Bolingbroke Dissn. upon Parties 141 The antient Britons are to us the Aborigines of our Island. 1841 Spalding Italy I. 44 The Umbrians are said to have been the aborigines of Italy. 1879 B. Taylor Germ. Lit. 3 The aborigines of Germany had their bards, their battle-songs and their sacrificial hymns. |
| β 1864 R. F. Burton Miss. to Dahome 19 The Bube, as may be proved by his language, is an aborigine of the mainland. |
b. fig.| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. 119 The Aborigines and the Advenae, the old Stock of Students, and the new Store brought in by St. Grimball. 1704 Swift Battle of Bks. (1711) 224 As to their own Seat, they were Aborigines of it. |
2. spec. The natives found in possession of a country by Europeans who have gone thither as colonists.
aborigine is now common
esp. in Australia.
| α 1789–96 J. Morse Amer. Geog. I. 594 Calvert, their leader, purchased the rights of the aborigines. 1845 Darwin Voy. of Nat. xix. 435 (1873) A score of the black aborigines passed by. 1868 G. Duff Polit. Surv. 112 From 300,000 to 400,000 aborigines reside within the territory of Liberia. |
| β 1858 Vielé Following Drum 216 The aborigine was inclined to dispute the point. 1864 Spectator 31 Dec. 1689 It seems probable that in half a century there will not be one aborigine left in Australia. 1876 J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine (1883) vi. 133 If the red aborigine ever had his summer of fulness and contentment. 1922 Times 8 Aug. 5/4 (headline) The Australian Aborigine: His Future Welfare. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. I. 804/2 The aborigine's social and spiritual feeling for his own land means that he does not covet the land of other people. |
3. Occas. used also of animals and plants.
| 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. vii. 199 Whereby it appears that the Brutes were not Aborigines. 1845 Darwin Voy. of Nat. vi. 119 (1879) I doubt whether any case is on record of an invasion on so grand a scale of one plant over the aborigines. |