| 释义 |
aboriginal, a. and n.|æbəˈrɪdʒɪnəl|
[f. L. ab origine (see aborigines) + -al1.]
A. adj.
1. First or earliest so far as history or science gives record; primitive; strictly native, indigenous. Used both of the races and natural features of various lands.
1667Waterhouse Fire of Lond. 70 Mr. Spencer, the trusty and Aboriginal Librarier. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) II. iii. xliv. 507 The very sites of the aboriginal forests. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 31 n. The wild habits and early condition of the aboriginal Iberians. 1874Lyell Elem. Geol. vi. 77 The pebbles therefore in the older gravels are exclusively constituted of granite and other aboriginal rocks. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. I. i. 2 The English are not aboriginal, that is, they are not identical with the race that occupied their home at the dawn of history.
2. spec. Dwelling in any country before the arrival of later (European) colonists.
1788Burke Sp. agt. W. Hastings Wks. XIII. 64 This aboriginal people of India. 1866Livingstone Journ. (1873) I. x. 252 Munongo..would apply to these aboriginal chiefs for it.
3. a. Of or pertaining to aborigines, to the earliest known inhabitants, or to native races.
1851D. Wilson Preh. Annals (1863) I. ii. 57 The aboriginal fleets of Ancient Caledonia. 1864Social Sci. Rev. I. 299 By putting fire-arms into their hands the English doubled the aboriginal power. 1874Sayce Comp. Philol. v. 175 The chances are that a modern Hindoo will be altogether, or in great part, of aboriginal blood, unless he be a Brahmin.
b. spec. (freq. with capital initial) of or pertaining to the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia.
1820N.S.W. Pocket Almanack 74 Institution for the Children of the aboriginal Natives of this Colony. 1896Morris Austral English p. xiv, In several books statements will be found that such and such a word is not Aboriginal, when it really has an aboriginal source but in a different part of the Continent. 1929K. S. Prichard Coonardoo ii. 25 All aboriginal babies are honey-coloured when they are born. 1944F. Clune Red Heart 16 The region is an Aboriginal Reserve, closed to white men. 1969Northern Territory News (Darwin) 11 July 9/7 Many Aboriginal groups in full tribal regalia will compete for the coveted shield tonight. 1980Age (Melbourne) 1 May 1/1 The chief teachers are Aboriginal ‘aunts’—herbal specialists..whose traditional role was as backstop to the male nunkari.
B. n.
a. (with pl.) [The adj. used elliptically.] An original inhabitant of any land, now usually as distinguished from subsequent European colonists. Also spec. one of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia.
1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Prov. Mass. Bay iii. 269 A good friend to the aboriginals of every tribe. 1828Hobart Town Courier 19 Apr. 1/2 Nothing herein contained shall authorize..any Settler..to make use of force (except for necessary self-defence) against any Aboriginal. 1845Darwin Voy. of Nat. (1879) xix. 441 The thoughtless aboriginal..is delighted at the approach of the white man. 1873A. Trollope Australia i. 60 It will be as well to call the race by the name officially given to it. The government styles them ‘aboriginals’..the word ‘native’ is almost universally applied to white colonists born in Australia. 1911E. M. Clowes On Wallaby xi. 299 In all matters connected with hunting the aboriginal, in the hard school of necessity, has brought his powers of observation to a fine point. 1938X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) xi. 144 He did not mind trying a nameless prisoner if he were an Aboriginal. 1943K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xvi. 180 Four aboriginals have a death sentence for shoving a spear through a policeman. 1969Sun-Herald (Sydney) 13 July 52/1 An Aboriginal is not a white man and he does not want to be.
b. fig. Of words.
1858Marsh Lect. Engl. Lang. xxiv. 539 The mischief it [poetry] has done to the language by employing aliens as substitutes for worthier aboriginals. |