Ainu

[ ahy-noo ]

noun

, plural Ai·nus, (especially collectively) Ai·nu.

1. a member of an aboriginal population of northernmost Japan.
2. the language of the Ainu.

Ainu

/ ˈaɪnuː /

noun

1. -nus-nu a member of the aboriginal people of Japan, now mostly intermixed with Mongoloid immigrants whose skin colour is more yellowish
2. the language of this people, sometimes tentatively associated with Altaic, still spoken in parts of Hokkaido and elsewhere

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ainu¹

Ainu: man

Example Sentences

Koho Kajiwara’s maroon bamboo “Peony Basket,” at TAI Modern, has a gorgeous, tear-drop-shaped handle several times taller than the basket itself, and Thomas Murray is showing an Ainu robe over a century old whose white-on-indigo patterns go back centuries further.

From New York Times

For example, Hitoshi Watanabe focused on ethnographic data about the Ainu, an Indigenous population in northern Japan and its surrounding areas.

From Scientific American

Although Watanabe documented Ainu women hunting, often with the aid of dogs, he dismissed this finding in his interpretations and placed the focus squarely on men as the primary meat winners.

From Scientific American

He was superimposing the idea of male superiority through hunting onto the Ainu and into the past.

From Scientific American

A group representing the Indigenous Ainu people of Japan has sued the government to reclaim the right to fish for salmon.

From New York Times