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indigenous: msg#00003culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Ready to march? Strike up the brand with a 14-day free trial to Merriam-WebsterCollegiate.com! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/collegiate_sub.pl?refr=C_wod **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for March 4 is: indigenous \in-DIJ-uh-nuss\ adjective *1 : having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment 2 : innate, inborn Example sentence: Most people know that kangaroos are indigenous to Australia, but some species are also found on the island of New Guinea. Did you know? "Indigenous" derives from the Latin noun "indigena" (meaning "native"), which was formed by combining Old Latin "indo" (meaning "in" or "within") with the verb "gignere" (meaning "to beget"). Another term that comes from the "indigena" root is "indigene," a word for a plant or animal that lives, grows, or originates in a certain area. "Indigene" is the older of the two; it has been used in English since the late 16th century, whereas the earliest documented use of "indigenous" occurred nearly 50 years later. "Indigenous" is mostly used in scientific contexts to describe organisms and the habitats to which they belong, but since the mid-19th century it has also been used in non-scientific contexts (as in "emotions indigenous to the human spirit"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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