native
/ˈneɪtɪv/ adjective, noun
Forms natives natiue natyf
- adjective Belonging to one by birth or ancestry. “This is my native land.”
- adjective Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from prehistoric times. “Many native artists studied abroad.”
- adjective Born or grown in the region in which it lives or is found; not foreign or imported. “native oysters or strawberries”
- adjective (biology, of a species) Which occurs of its own accord in a given locality, to be contrasted with a species introduced by humans. “The naturalized Norway maple often outcompetes the native North American sugar maple.”
- adjective (computing, of software) Pertaining to the system or architecture in question. “This is a native back-end to gather the latest news feeds.”
- adjective (mineralogy) Occurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form. “native aluminium”
- adjective Arising by birth; having an origin; born.
- adjective Original; constituting the original substance of anything. “native dust”
- noun A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.
- noun (in particular) A person of aboriginal descent, as distinguished from a person who was or whose ancestors were foreigners or settlers/colonizers. Alternative letter-case form of Native (aboriginal inhabitant of the Americas or Australia).
- noun A native speaker.
- noun A native plant or animal.
- noun An oyster of species Ostrea edulis.
- adjective Aboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)
- adjective (US, Canada) Indian: Native American or First Nation; of or relating to (North) American Indians. “Indian agents actas a government representatives to communities of Native North Americans.”
- adjective (Australia, New Zealand) Aboriginal; of or relating to Australian Aboriginal peoples, Aborigines.
- adjective (South Africa) Related to black Africans, especially Bantu.
- noun An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)
- noun (US, Canada) A Native American.
- noun (Australia, New Zealand) An Aborigine.
Synonyms
inborn aboriginal innate autochthonous indigenous autochthonal endemic inlandish homeling indigen indigene aborigine
Antonyms
foreign naturalized fremd allochthonous exotic adopted nonnative
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English natif, from Old French natif, from Latin nātīvus, from nātus (“birth”). Doublet of naive and neif. Displaced native Middle English thedisch, equivalent to (puristic) theed + -ish. By surface analysis, Latin nat- + -ive.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Arising by birth; having an origin; born. [Obs.]
- adjective Of or pertaining to one's birth; natal; belonging to the place or the circumstances in which one is born; --opposed to foreign; as, native land, language, color, etc.
- noun One who, or that which, is born in a place or country referred to; a denizen by birth; an animal, a fruit, or vegetable, produced in a certain region; as, a native of France.
- noun Any of the live stock found in a region, as distinguished from such as belong to pure and distinct imported breeds. [U.S.]
Etymology [F. natif, L. nativus, fr. nasci, p.p. natus. See Nation, and cf. Naïve, Nelf a serf.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “native”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details