There is a battle raging at our house regarding the origin of the word indigenous....can anyone help? There are several schools of thought although none seem reliable
(except mine)....(of course)...

Tu

tututu, one source for etymologies that gets cited here a lot is the American Heritage Dictionary (it's free, unlike the OED, hint hint).

You can find the AHD entry for indigenous at http://www.bartleby.com/61/63/I0106300.html

Bingley

Brilliant! ROTF

Ohh! I DO like this one!! very clever.

And "indignant" is the attitude of the indigens vs. invaders.

One of the wonders of language for me is the ability to find new connections even in familiar material. Thanks Bingley, because your link persuaded me to examine the root word more closely via the appendix:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE143.html

Dear Mav: one bartleby appendix missed - gonorrhea

LL gonorrhoea < Gr gonorrhoia < gonos, a seed, semen (see GONAD) + rhoia < rheein, to flow: see

In which we discover that the term Injun is not a derogatory slurred pronunciation of the inaccurate term Indian but rather a simultaneous reference to their prior occupation of the land and to their ingenuity in handling problems that the early Europeans found extremely daunting.

An acquaintance of mine in Birmingham, England, used to make tiny earings especially for sale to the Native Americans - he had a small engineering works.

Hearty accord to mav's comment, One of the wonders of language for me is the ability to find new connections even in familiar material. I had a similar epiphany when dr. bill used a word, ithyphallic, unfamiliar to me. bartleby.com, gives the root and alternate form of that root. These were vigorous, seminal roots, and among their progeny are intriguing connections, some surprising.

I here cite only the striking fact that the words phallic and fool are linguistically related.

Ah, the deep wisdom embedded in our language!

http://bartleby.com/61/34/I0263400.html
Roots: http://bartleby.com/61/roots/IE51.html;
http://bartleby.com/61/roots/IE53.html; and http://bartleby.com/61/roots/IE65.html

Dear Keiva: Can that be the reason so many of us cannot suffer fools gladly?

why the heck is "jaunty" a derivative of "gen"?

Pronunciation of the French gentil. The meaning has slipped a bit since it was first used to describe the possibly arrogant (from the Saxon point of view) attitude of the Norman overlords.

When the gents move to the country, they even have the gall to complain about odor of cow byproducts. Gentrification seems applicable to them

II Corinthians 11:19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.


- William Blake; Proverbs of Hell

dr. bill ... ithyphallic?

Yeth.

>A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

<shakes head dizzily> oh man... where did that tree pop up from?

Dear Mav: ithyphallic?

No thir, not thinth Rx linear akthelerator for TheeA pwothtate.

Perhapth thatth muth more than we needed to know!

When I origingally noted the linguistic family tree we've been disussing, I did not think to change the then-pending "Re" on my post. (Lawyerly pose:) Various possibilities are hereinabove listed, for your consideration.