carib
/ˈkæɹɪb/ noun, proper noun
Forms caribs
- noun A hummingbird of the genus Eulampis.
- noun A member of one of a number of Amerindian peoples who inhabit the coast of Central and South America and the Lesser Antilles.
- noun A member of the mainland or ‘proper’ Caribs (Kari'na), a Cariban people who inhabit the north coast of South America, in parts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
- noun A member of the Kalinago people of the Lesser Antilles, an Arawakan people who took heavy cultural influence from the mainland Caribs and so were formerly known as Island Caribs.
- noun A member of the Garifuna people of Honduras, historically known as Black Caribs, descendants of mixed Kalinago people and Africans who were deported to the Central American mainland in the 18th century.
- proper noun The Kari'na or Carib language proper, a Cariban language.
- proper noun The Kalinago or Island Carib language, an unrelated Arawakan language.
- proper noun The Garifuna language, an offshoot of Kalinago.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish Caribe, likely from a Kalinago term corresponding to karifuna (“Kalinago person”) in modern Kalinago, a borrowing from a Cariban language, ultimately from Proto-Cariban *karipona (“person”). Compare Kari'na karìna (“Carib person”). Doublet of cannibal, caribe, Carijona, Galibi, Garifuna, and Kari'na.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A native of the Caribbee islands or the coaste of the Caribbean sea; esp., one of a tribe of Indians inhabiting a region of South America, north of the Amazon, and formerly most of the West India islands.
Etymology [See Cannibal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “carib”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details