indigenous

[ in-dij-uh-nuhs ]

adjective

1. originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native (often followed by to ):

   the plants indigenous to Canada.

   Synonyms: natural, aboriginal, autochthonous

   Antonyms: exotic, foreign

2. Indigenous. relating to or being a people who are the original, earliest known inhabitants of a region, or are their descendants: the Indigenous languages of the Americas.

   the Indigenous Maori of New Zealand;

   the Indigenous languages of the Americas.

3. innate; inherent; natural (usually followed by to ):

   feelings indigenous to human beings.

indigenous

/ ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs; ˌɪndɪˈdʒɛnɪtɪ /

adjective

1. originating or occurring naturally (in a country, region, etc); native
2. innate (to); inherent (in)

indigenous

/ ĭn-dĭj′ə-nəs /

1. Native to a particular region or environment but occurring naturally in other places as well. The American black bear is indigenous to many different parts of North America.
2. Compare alien

Derived Forms

• inˈdigenously, adverb
• inˈdigenousness, noun

Other Words From

• in·dige·nous·ly adverb
• in·dige·nous·ness in·di·gen·i·ty [in-di-, jen, -i-tee], noun
• nonin·dige·nous adjective
• unin·dige·nous adjective
• unin·dige·nous·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of indigenous¹

First recorded in 1640–50; from Latin indigen(a) “native, original inhabitant” ( indi-, by-form of in- in- ² ( indagate ) + -gena, derivative from base of gignere “to bring into being”; genital, genitor ) + -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of indigenous¹

C17: from Latin indigenus, from indigena indigene, from indi- in + gignere to beget

Example Sentences

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act that led to the Trail of Tears — a death march that forced around 60,000 Indigenous people to leave their homes and move west, across the Mississippi River, to Oklahoma.

From Salon

He goes down to the homelands to remind settlers in the area that the Muscogee survived despite the United States attempts at genocide and demos making canoes and bows the traditional way out of local wood during the annual Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration.

From Salon

From China, peaches made their way to Europe, then to the Americas in the 1600s on Spanish ships — the beginning of a kind of crop exchange between the continents: potatoes and tomatoes from South and Central America went to Europe while peaches made their way to the Georgia coast, and quickly, into Indigenous diets.

From Salon

"Indigenous people were already caring for and managing forests and other kinds of tree foods," said Jacob Holland-Lulewicz at Pennsylvania State University, who studies archaeology and ethnohistory.

From Salon

Around 1780, thousands of peach trees tended by the Seneca and Cayuga tribes along the Finger Lakes in western New York State were destroyed by President George Washington, in an attempt to ethnically cleanse Indigenous peoples from the region.

From Salon

Related Words

• congenital
• connate
• constitutional
• essential
• fundamental
• inborn
• inherent
• inherited
• innate
• intrinsic
• natural
• unacquired