native

comparative more native · superlative most native · alternative obsolete natiue · alternative obsolete natyf

1. Belonging to one by birth or ancestry.

   This is my native land.

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   English is not my native language.

   I need a volunteer native New Yorker for my next joke…

   In my natyf language I wyl not opres, / More of her werke, for it is obscure; / Who wyl therof knowe all the perfeytnes / In phylosophy he shall fynde it ryght sure, / Whyche all the trouth can to hym discure.

   1509, Stephen Hawes, The Pastime of Pleasure: An Allegorical Poem (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages; vol. XVIII.), reprinted from the edition of 1555, London: Percy Society, published 1846, cap. xxiv. “Of the five internall wittes.”, stanza 14, lines 1–5, page 111

   The Language I haue learn’d these forty yeares (My natiue English) now I must forgo.

   1593, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act I, scene iii, line 160

   Thy sentence…robs my tongue from breathing natiue breath.

   ibidem, line 173

   Synonyms: inborn

2. Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from prehistoric times.

   Many native artists studied abroad.

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   Native peoples in the continental United States are called Native Americans or American Indians.

3. Alternative letter-case form of Native (of or relating to the native inhabitants of the Americas, or of Australia).
4. Born or grown in the region in which it lives or is found; not foreign or imported.

   native oysters or strawberries

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   Clover is not native to the Americas, but it is firmly established there.

   Synonyms: aboriginal

5. biologyWhich occurs of its own accord in a given locality, to be contrasted with a species introduced by humans.

   The naturalized Norway maple often outcompetes the native North American sugar maple.

6. computingPertaining to the system or architecture in question.

   cloud native, crypto native

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   This is a native back-end to gather the latest news feeds.

   The native integer size is sixteen bits.

7. chemistryOccurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form.

   native salt

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   native aluminium

8. Arising by birth; having an origin; born.

   Anaximander's opinion is, that the gods are native, rising and vanishing again in long periods of times.

   1678, R[alph] Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC

9. Original; constituting the original substance of anything.

   native dust

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   Must I thus leave thee Paradise? thus leave Thee Native Soile, these happie Walks and Shades, Fit haunt of Gods?

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

10. Naturally related; cognate; connected (with).

    The head is not more native to the heart, […] Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

    c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

plural natives · alternative obsolete natiue · alternative obsolete natyf

1. A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.
2. A person of aboriginal descent, as distinguished from a person who was or whose ancestors were foreigners or settlers/colonizers. Alternative letter-case form of Native (aboriginal inhabitant of the Americas or Australia).

   Mail trains are limited to first and second class passengers, but on the mixed trains third class is also provided, and this is patronised exclusively by natives.

   1940 December, O. S. M. Raw, “The Rhodesia Railways—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 640

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   Dr John Reid, a historian called to testify for Mr Marshall, distinguished between the fur trade at the truckhouses and a smaller scale trade between natives and settlers: "It seems that there were native persons who were selling small amounts […]"

   2009, Alex M. Cameron, Power without Law: The Supreme Court of Canada, the Marshall Decisions and the Failure of Judicial Activism, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, →ISBN

   As for the wars between natives and settlers, far from having “ceased,” they would continue well into the twentieth century, and over much the same things that had always sparked them—trade, land, and settler arrogance.

   2013, James Ciment, Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It, Hill and Wang, →ISBN, page 72

3. A native speaker.
4. A native plant or animal.

   Antonyms: exotic

5. An oyster of species Ostrea edulis.

1. not comparableAboriginal to a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

   […] when the Treaty of Tordesillas (in Portuguese, Tordesilhas) gave the disgruntled Portuguese the land mass now known as Brazil; and leads us all the way into the twenty—first century, with hosts of unsettled Native land claims […]

   2013, Tracy Devine Guzmán, Native and National in Brazil: Indigeneity After Independence, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 170

   1. CanadaUSnot comparableIndian: Native American or First Nation; of or relating to (North) American Indians.

      Indian agents actas a government representatives to communities of Native North Americans.

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      Therefore, in 1885 Congress passed the Major Crimes Act whereby jurisdiction in the case of seven major crimes (the list of crimes was later expanded) occurring on Native lands was placed in the hands of federal courts.

      2005, Native American Issues: A Reference Handbook, →ISBN, page 82

   2. AustraliaNew Zealandnot comparableAboriginal; of or relating to Australian Aboriginal peoples, Aborigines.

      He did not ask the Council to sanction the removal of all restrictions on Native lands, but simply asked that such lands as are to be rated under this Bill should have their titles freed in so far as to enable the Native owners to lease those lands and obtain some benefit therefrom.

      1904 November 3, in the New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, second session, fifteenth parliament, legislative council and house of representatives, volume 131, Native Land Rating Bill, page 814

   3. South Africanot comparableRelated to black Africans, especially Bantu.

plural Natives

1. An aboriginal inhabitant of a colonized region, especially one colonized by English-speaking people. (Compare native, which is more general.)

   […] cachet, Amazon Natives have succeeded in attracting an impressive degree of international support. The catastrophic attrition of Natives in Brazil raises the fundamental question of why the Portuguese took Africans there at all. […]

   2016, Patrick Wolfe, Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race, Verso Books, →ISBN

   1. CanadaUSA Native American.
   2. AustraliaNew ZealandAn Aborigine.
   3. South AfricadatedoffensivepossiblyA black African, especially a Bantu.

      Thunderstorms have been more frequent, and I regret to say during one last week a Native kraal was struck by lightning, the electric fluid killing three head of cattle; several Natives in a hut received a shock, but happily no further injury.

      1901 December 6, J. J. Jackson, “District Reports”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 20, page 613