Etymologically
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aborigines

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [a.bɔˈriː.ɡɪ.neːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.boˈriː.d͡ʒi.nes][1]

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

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