aborigines

Forms

aborīginēs m pl (genitive aborīginum); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually explained as from Latin ab (“from”) + orīgō (“beginning, origin”), as if the people were there “from the beginning”.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of orior (“to rise”), beside orīgō.^[3] Wiktionary calls the origin unclear: the early sources treat it as the name of one people rather than a general word for first inhabitants, so it may be a pre-Roman tribal name reshaped by folk etymology to resemble the phrase.^[1]

Ancient writers gave other explanations.^[1] Festus says they were named after their long wandering,^[4] and the epitome of Festus and the Origo gentis Romanae derive the name from their wandering, first ⟨Aberrigines⟩ from aberrō (“to wander away”).^[4] Another proposal joined ab and Ancient Greek ὄρος (óros, “mountain”).^[1] The Servian commentary on the Aeneid says later generations gave the ancient Cascī this name because they knew they had sprung from them.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato the Elder, in his history, says that Italy was first held by certain people called Aborigines.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

For Varro, Cicero, Sallust, Livy and later writers it is the name of an ancient pre-Roman people of Latium, regarded as ancestors of the Romans;^[5][2] Cicero has Romulus advance into the land of the Rutuli and the Aborigines, and Suetonius names Faunus as their king.^[5][2] Pliny the Elder uses it more generally for the original founders of a city.^[5]

English took aborigines from it in the 1540s; the singular aborigine was formed in English in 1858.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato the Elder names the Aborigines as the first people of Italy.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero places them beside the Rutuli in the story of Romulus.^[5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the original founders of a city.^[5][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius names Faunus as their king.^[5][7]
• 1540s – English borrows aborigines.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The Aborigines, a pre-Roman people of Italy, held to be ancestors of the Romans.^[5][2][4]
2. The original founders or first inhabitants (of a city or country); aborigines.^[5][1]

Word family

• aborīgineus

Related words

• orīgō
• orior
• English aborigine
• English aboriginal

Usage notes

The OLD and Lewis & Short write it with a capital, as a people's name.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de