albino

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese albino, from Spanish albino,^[2][3][4] and the OED takes it partly from the Spanish word directly.^[4] The Spanish word, recorded from 1609, spelled with ñ, in the passage that the first English quotation translates, is formed from albo (“white”) with the suffix -ino,^[4][5][6][7] and albo is from Latin albus (“white”).^{[4][8][9][10]} Wiktionary instead derives the Portuguese word from Medieval Latin albinus.^[1] The Portuguese form is recorded from 1727, and French has albinos from 1665.^[4] Ayto, Klein and the Shorter Oxford say that the Portuguese applied the word to African people with albinism, Klein to those mottled with white spots;^[11][12][7] according to Barnhart this was the traditional view, but Corominas showed that the word appears earlier in Spanish than in Portuguese, and since both are older than the English word, its immediate source cannot be settled.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person with abnormally pale skin, hair and eyes: 1708, in John Stevens's translation of Argensola's account of the Moluccas.^[4][2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1777.^[8][10]

Semantic evolution

The word was extended from people to animals lacking pigment, from 1807 in the OED and 1859 in Etymonline,^[4][8] and to plants with pale leaves through a lack of chlorophyll (1862).^[4] The adjective is recorded from 1785, in Thomas Jefferson's “Notes on Virginia”, of a person, and of animals and plants from 1833 and 1849.^[4] A feminine form, albiness, was formed in 1808.^[8]

Timeline

• 1708 – a person lacking normal pigmentation.^[4][2] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1777.^[8][10]
• 1785 – adjective, of a person.^[4]
• 1807 – an animal lacking pigment.^[4]
• 1862 – a plant with pale leaves lacking chlorophyll.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person with albinism, a congenital lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes.^[3][2][4]
2. An animal or plant lacking normal pigmentation.^[3][2][4]

Adjective

1. Affected with albinism; lacking normal pigmentation: an albino squirrel.^[4][7]

Word family

• albinism

Related words

• alb
• album

Usage notes

A diphthong in the second syllable, as in -bye-, was apparently the norm in British as well as American English for most of the 19th century;^[4] Daniel Jones's pronouncing dictionary (1917) put /ælˈbiːnəʊ/ first, and Webster's dictionaries listed the pronunciation with /iː/ only from 1911, as especially British.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives /iː/ as usual in Britain and occasional in the United States.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.