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Glite Dictionary
🇨🇷 From Costa Rica 🧑 A person from Costa Rica
Costa Rican

Costa Rican

1 1.2
A person from Costa Rica
  • noun
  • /ˌkoʊstə ˈriːkən/
translation icon : costarricense
  • In fact, in many countries of the region, technicians, consultants, and coffee associations aspire to the "Costa Rican" or "Tico" (the nickname for a Costa Rican) model.

You go see me with so many Venezuelans, Costa Ricans, Ecuadorians.

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Examples

  • Surveys indicated that the majority of Costa Ricans opposed his stance.

    Academic text (2004)

  • The captain is Costa Rican.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Environmental consciousness has been growing among Costa Ricans in recent years, especially in urban areas but in the countryside as well.

    Academic text (2002)

  • From the beginning, the Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans played key roles, although for different reasons.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Place that information in a computerized and physical format that Costa Ricans and others will find easy to use.

    Academic text (1997)

  • You have set out to improve the English-speaking abilities of Costa Ricans.

    Academic text (2011)

  • More than 150,000 sea turtles gather annually to lay their eggs on a single Costa Rican beach.

    Academic text (1995)

  • As citizens of the region's only demilitarized and democratic social-welfare state, Costa Ricans have long enjoyed levels of literacy, health, and well-being far above those of other Central Americans.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Environmental awareness is a key concern for many Costa Ricans today.

  • The festival celebrated the culture and traditions of Costa Ricans from various regions.

Surface Forms

Costa Rican singular
Costa Ricans plural

Morphology

Costa + Rican

The meaning 'a person from Costa Rica' is directly derivable from the place-name Costa Rica combined with the regular demonym-forming element (-an): Costa + (Rica) → Costa Rican = inhabitant of Costa Rica. This country-name + demonym pattern is compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent place name and basic demonym formation will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The noun Costa Rican names a person from Costa Rica, and the country's name means 'rich coast' in Spanish after early visitors who found rich shores. So a Costa Rican is literally someone 'from Costa Rica'.