dictionary definitions for "aboriginal"


From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

  aboriginal
      adj 1: being or composed of people inhabiting a region from the
             beginning; "native Americans"; "the aboriginal peoples
             of Australia" [syn: native] [ant: nonnative]
      2: having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or
         original stage or state; "aboriginal forests"; "primal
         eras before the appearance of life on earth"; "the forest
         primeval"; "primordial matter"; "primordial forms of life"
          [syn: primal, primeval, primaeval, primordial]
      n : a dark-skinned member of a race of people living in
          Australia when Europeans arrived [syn: Aborigine,
          Abo, Aboriginal, native Australian, {Australian
          Aborigine}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Aboriginal \Ab`o*rig"i*nal\, a. [See Aborigines.]
     1. First; original; indigenous; primitive; native; as, the
        aboriginal tribes of America. "Mantled o'er with
        aboriginal turf." --Wordsworth.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to aborigines; as, a Hindu of aboriginal
        blood.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Aboriginal \Ab`o*rig"i*nal\, n.
     1. An original inhabitant of any land; one of the aborigines.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. An animal or a plant native to the region.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It may well be doubted whether this frog is an
              aboriginal of these islands.          --Darwin.
        [1913 Webster]


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