Sunday Word: Autochthonous

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autochthonous [aw-tok-thuh-nuhs]

adjective:
1 (of an inhabitant of a place) indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists.
2 (of a deposit or formation) formed in its present position.

Examples:

Details reveal that in the last two decades alone, the megacity has lost thousands of its autochthonous trees to newly-built flyovers, underpasses, and other construction projects, while harmful trees like conocarpuses have been extensively used to line sidewalks and green spaces. (Syed Ashraf Ali, Urban sprawl continues to consume greenbelts, The Express Tribune, April 2022)

Yaylalı, who emigrated to Greece in 2019, is looking to change his last name to Parharidis, which he says is a common last name among Pontic Greeks, an autochthonous people of the Black Sea coast whose numbers have since diminished due to assimilation and massacres under the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. (Turkish court to take on citizen’s appeal to assume Greek surname, Medyanews, April 2022)

The chapter takes a holistic view of the various theses of origin of Urhobo people, with a view to providing a background to the history of the Udu Kingdom, which is the object of this book. Igben interrogates the autochthonous, the emigration and origin theories earlier postulated by Onigu Otite and Peter Ekeh, both great scholars of Urhobo history. (Gregory Austin Nwakunor, A peep into Udu Kingdom, the people, their history, The Guardian Nigeria, January 2020)

As the Oecusse oral history goes, centuries ago a Costa king instructed the village naijuf and other residents to appoint an autochthonous individual as tobe and entrust him with the responsibility of carrying out agricultural rituals. (Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya, The Timor-Leste Tree: How East Timor Nearly Lost Its Illustrious Sandalwood , The News Lens, June 2017)

Origin:

'native, aboriginal, indigenous,' 1805, from autochthon: 1640s, 'one sprung from the soil he inhabits' (plural autochthones), from Latinized form of Greek autokhthon 'aborigines, natives, primitive inhabitants,' literally 'sprung from the land itself,' used of the Athenians and others who claimed descent from the Pelasgians, from autos 'self' + khthōn 'land, earth, soil' (from PIE root dhghem- 'earth') (Online Etymology Dictionary)