native

Etymology

From Middle English natif, from Old French natif, from Latin nātīvus, from nātus (“birth”). Doublet of naive and neif.

adj

1. Belonging to one by birth.
   This is my native land.
   English is not my native language.
   I need a volunteer native New Yorker for my next joke…
2. Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from prehistoric times.
   What are now called ‘Native Americans’ used to be called Indians.
   The native peoples of Australia are called aborigines.
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.
   a native inhabitant
   native oysters or strawberries
   Many native artists studied abroad.
5. (biology, of a species) Which 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. (computing, of software) Pertaining to the system or architecture in question.
   This is a native back-end to gather the latest news feeds.
   The native integer size is sixteen bits.
   cloud native, crypto native
7. (mineralogy) Occurring naturally in its pure or uncombined form.
   native aluminium, native salt
8. Arising by birth; having an origin; born.
9. Original; constituting the original substance of anything.
   native dust
10. Naturally related; cognate; connected (with).

noun

1. A person who is native to a place; a person who was born in a place.
2. (in particular) 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
   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
   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, page 72
3. A native speaker.
4. Ostrea edulis, a kind of oyster.