Autochthonous

November 05, 2018

Look Up Every Unfamiliar Word You See

John Derbyshire used the word autochthonous in a talk he gave on ‘...China, America, and the Chinese in America’.

“The Han Chinese are autochthonous. They have always been in China, at any rate North China. ‘Always’ of course means ‘since the great out-of-Africa dispersals of 50 to 30 thousand years ago.’ ”

Here’s audio of how the word is pronounced:  

From Wiktionary—Autochthonous:

Adjective

  1. Native to the place where found; indigenous.
  2. (biology, medicine) Originating where found; found where it originates.
  3. (geology) Buried in place, especially of a fossil preserved in its life position without disturbance or disarticulation.

Etymonline.com onAutochthonous.

Wikipedia on Autochthon.


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Notes from John Williams.

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