Aboriginal

How to spell aboriginal

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce aboriginal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aboriginal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the original or earliest known inhabitants of a region, or to things existing from the very beginning.

Aboriginal in a sentence

• The museum displayed aboriginal art collected from across the continent.

• Researchers studied the aboriginal languages once spoken in the valley.

Where does aboriginal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin phrase ab origine, which literally meant 'from the beginning' or 'from the origin', combining the preposition ab 'from' with origine, a form of origo 'source, beginning'. The Romans used the plural noun Aborigines for the legendary first inhabitants of Latium, the people said to have lived there before any others. English absorbed the idea in the 1500s, and by the late 1600s 'aboriginal' was being used as an adjective for the earliest known inhabitants of a place. Over time it became closely tied to Indigenous peoples, especially in Australia. The single 'b' followed by the familiar word 'origin' is the key to the spelling: think of it as ab plus origin plus -al, which keeps the middle from going astray.

How the word is built

• ab- (from)
• origin (beginning, source)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)