a. and sb. [f. L. ab origine (see ABORIGINES) + -AL.]
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.
1667. Waterhouse, Fire of Lond., 70. Mr. Spencer, the trusty and Aboriginal Librarier.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), II. III. xliv. 507. The very sites of the aboriginal forests.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 31, note. The wild habits and early condition of the aboriginal Iberians.
1874. Lyell, Elem. Geol., vi. 77. The pebbles therefore in the older gravels are exclusively constituted of granite and other aboriginal rocks.
1875. Stubbs, 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.
1788. Burke, Sp. agt. W. Hastings, Wks. XIII. 64. This aboriginal people of India.
1866. Livingstone, Journ. (1873), I. x. 252. Munongo … would apply to these aboriginal chiefs for it.
3. Of or pertaining to aborigines, to the earliest known inhabitants, or to native races.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Annals (1863), I. ii 57. The aboriginal fleets of Ancient Caledonia.
1864. Social Sci. Rev., I. 299. By putting fire-arms into their hands the English doubled the aboriginal power.
1874. Sayce, 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 Brahmnin.
B. sb. (with pl.) [The adj. used elliptically.]
An original inhabitant of any land, now usually as distinguished from subsequent European colonists.
1767. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Prov. Mass. Bay, iii. 269. A good friend to the aboriginals of every tribe.
1845. Darwin, Voy. of Nat. (1879), xix. 441. The thoughtless aboriginal … is delighted at the approach of the white man.
1873. A. 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.
b. fig. Of words.
1858. Marsh, Lect. Engl. Lang., xxiv. 539. The mischief it [poetry] has done to the language by employing aliens as substitutes for worthier aboriginals.
