Word to the Wise: Autochthonous

Someone or something that’s "autochthonous" (aw-TOK-thuh-nus) - from the Latin for "of the land" - is native to the place where it’s found.

Example (as used by Anthony Pagden in The New Republic): "For cultures are not monoliths. They are fragmentary, patchworks of autochthonous and foreign elements."

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