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Glite Dictionary
autochthon

autochthon

9.9
A person who is one of the first people to live in a place
  • noun
  • /ɔːˈtɒkθən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : autóctono
  • The indigenous tribes of the Amazon are considered the autochthons of that region, with cultures and traditions that date back thousands of years.

Examples

  • Many scholars study the autochthons of ancient civilizations to understand the origins and developments of human societies.

  • Citizens and artists are increasingly defined not as rights-bearing subjects of a nation, who may have come from elsewhere, but as ethnographic autochthons.

    Academic text (2008)

  • As an autochthon of New Zealand, she shared stories passed down from her ancestors about the land and its history.

Synonyms

aborigine
vsautochthon
4 8.6

A person from the first people living in a place before others arrived

means earliest known inhabitants rather than mainly before colonization
aboriginal
vsautochthon
2 7.6

A member of the first people who lived in a region

focuses on the earliest known inhabitants without stressing colonization

Antonyms

immigrant
768 2.5

A person who moves to another country to live there for a long time

settler
108 4.1

A person who moves to a new area to live and set up a home

Surface Forms

autochthon singular
autochthons plural

Morphology

autochthon = auto + chthon

Although the word is historically built from Greek elements meaning roughly 'self' + 'earth', the second element is not a productive English morpheme and the meaning is not predictable for an average learner.

Etymology

Autochthon comes from the Greek parts auto- ('self') and chthon ('earth' or 'ground'), so it literally means someone 'from the land itself'. That's why autochthon means an original or native person who belongs to a place from long ago.