5 results for: Native American Browse Nearby Entries
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
native American
–noun
a person born in the United States.

[Origin: 1835–45, Americanism]

na·tive-A·mer·i·can, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Native American

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© 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
Native American
–noun
Indian (def. 1).
See Indian, Eskimo.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Native American  
n.   A member of any of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The ancestors of the Native Americans are generally considered by scientists to have entered the Americas from Asia by way of the Bering Strait sometime during the late glacial epoch.

Native American adj.
Usage Note: Many Americans have come to prefer Native American over Indian both as a term of respect and as a corrective to the famous misnomer bestowed on the peoples of the Americas by a geographically befuddled Columbus. There are solid arguments for this preference. Native American eliminates any confusion between indigenous American peoples and the inhabitants of India, making it the clear choice in many official contexts. It is also historically accurate, despite the insistence by some that Indians are no more native to America than anyone else since their ancestors are assumed to have migrated here from Asia. But one sense of native is "being a member of the original inhabitants of a particular place," and Native Americans' claim to being the original inhabitants of the Americas is unchallenged. · Accuracy and precision aside, however, the choice between these two terms is often made as a matter of principle. For many, Native American is the only choice for expressing respect toward America's indigenous peoples; Indian is seen as wrong and offensive. For others, the former smacks of bureaucracy and the manipulation of language for political purposes while the latter is the natural English term, its inaptness made irrelevant by long use. Fortunately, this controversy appears to have subsided somewhat in recent years, and it is now common to find the two terms used interchangeably in the same piece of writing. Furthermore, the issue has never been particularly divisive between Indians and non-Indians. While generally welcoming the respectful tone of Native American, most Indian writers have continued to use the older name at least as often as the newer one. · Native American and Indian are not exact equivalents when referring to the aboriginal peoples of Canada and Alaska. Native American, the broader term, is properly used of all such peoples, whereas Indian is customarily used of the northern Athabaskan and Algonquian peoples in contrast to the Eskimos, Inuits, and Aleuts. Alaska Native (or less commonly Native Alaskan) is also properly used of all indigenous peoples residing in Alaska. See Usage Notes at American Indian, First Nation, Indian.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
native american

adjective
1. of or pertaining to American Indians or their culture or languages; "Native American religions"; "Indian arrowheads" [syn: Indian

noun
1. any member of the peoples living in North or South America before the Europeans arrived [syn: Amerindian

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Native ˈAmerican noun
American Indian
Arabic: أحد الهنود الحُمْر، هندي أمريكي
Chinese (Simplified): 美洲土著印第安人
Chinese (Traditional): 美洲土著印第安人
Czech: rodilý Američan
Danish: indianer
Estonian: indiaanlane, Ameerika põliasukas
Greek: Ινδιάνος
Hungarian: amerikai indián
Indonesian: Indian
Italian: indiano d'America*
Latvian: Amerikas indiānis
Lithuanian: (Amerikos) indėnas, čiabuvis
Norwegian: offisielt navn på indianer i USA
Polish: rodowity Amerykanin, Indianin
Russian: коренной американец, индеец
Slovak: rodený Američan
Slovenian: prvoten Američan
Spanish: indio americano
Turkish: Kızılderili, Amerikan yerli halkı
See also: native, native language/tongue, native speaker, native to, the Nativity

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd.
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