SeeAboriginal.

• (US)IPA^(key):/ˌæb.əˈɹɪd͡ʒ.n̩.l̩/,/ˌæb.əˈɹɪd͡ʒ.ɪn.l̩/

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• Hyphenation:ab‧o‧ri‧gin‧al

aboriginal (comparativemoreaboriginal,superlativemostaboriginal)

1. First according to historical or scientific records; original;indigenous;primitive.[First attested in the mid 17th century.]^[1]
   • 1814,William Wordsworth,The Excursion‎^[1], Longman et al., page277:

     Green in the Church-yard, beautiful and green; /[…] / And mantled o'er withaboriginal turf / And everlasting flowers.

   • 1851 November 14,Herman Melville, “Knights and Squires”, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC,page131:

     Tashtego's long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones, and black rounding eyes—[…] all this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, theaboriginal forests of the main.

2. Living in a land before colonization by the Europeans.[First attested in the late 17th century.]^[1]
   • 1851,Herman Melville,Moby Dick, Chapter 2:

     Where else but from Nantucket did thoseaboriginal whalemen, the Red-Men, first sally out in canoes to give chase to the Leviathan?

   • 1889,Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, inUnder the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published1899, page37:

     Had a vast knowledge of theaboriginal tribes; was, in spite of his juniority, the greatest authority on theaboriginalGullals.

3. Alternativeletter-case form ofAboriginal[First attested in the late 18th century.]^[1]

• (indigenous to a place):ancient,autochthonous,earliest,endemic,first,indigenous,native,original,primeval,primitive,primordial

• aborigine

aboriginal (pluralaboriginals)

1. An animal or plant native to a region.[First attested in the mid 18th century.]^[1]
   • 1839, Charles Darwin,Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle:

     It may be welldoubted whether this frog is anaboriginal of these islands.

2. Alternativeletter-case form ofAboriginal[First attested in the mid 18th century.]^[1]
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly,Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page244:

     Every one of the groups of islands in the Pacific, many of them only a few days' sail from Australia, have their own customs, religious, political and social, and yet Australia has none, and theaboriginals have imbibed nothing from their intercourse with other nationalities.

• Using uncapitalizedaboriginal to refer to people or anything associated with people may cause offence.
• In Canada and Australia, style manuals recommend against using the nounAboriginal for a person or people.
• See also the usage notes underAboriginal.

• IPA^(key):/aboɾixiˈnal/[a.β̞o.ɾi.xiˈnal]
• Rhymes:-al
• Syllabification:a‧bo‧ri‧gi‧nal

aboriginal m orfby sense (pluralaboriginales)

1. Aborigine(original inhabitant of Australia)

   Synonym:aborigen