Pl. autochthons, or in L. form autochthones. [a. Gr. αὐτόχθων sprung from that land itself, f. αὐτο (see AUTO-) + χθών, χθονός, earth, soil.]
1. lit. A human being sprung from the soil he inhabits; a ‘son of the soil.’
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 274. There was therefore never any Autochthon, or man arising from the earth but Adam.
1660. Ingelo, Bentiv. & Ur., II. (1682), 83. [They] suppose men to be Autochthones, Intelligent Mushromes.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 147. He loves the earth on which he walks like a true autochthon.
2. Hence in pl. The earliest known dwellers in any country; original inhabitants, aborigines.
1741. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. 28. They thought themselves Autochthones.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. ix. 279. But for the evidence of history, the Norse population of the Orkneys would appear to be autochthones.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, I. 205. Greek tradition … placed the Pelasgians first in the Peloponnesus as autochthons.
3. transf. and fig. Original inhabitants or products.
1837. Campbell, To Sp. Patriots, ii. Ye Are worse than common fiends from Heaven that fell, The baser, ranker sprung, Autochthones of Hell!
1879. Le Conte, Elem. Geol., 553. The Pliocene Autochthones were destroyed.
