# autochthonous

Pronunciation: say "aw-TOK-thuh-nuhs" US /ɔˈtɑkθənəs/, UK /ɔːˈtɒkθənəs/

## Adjective

1. Native to the place where it is found, belonging there by origin rather than having arrived from somewhere else.
   - Simple: Belonging to the place where it is found and not coming from anywhere else.
   - _The new constitution recognizes the autochthonous communities of the highlands and their claims to the land._
   - _Linguists long assumed the language was autochthonous until older inscriptions turned up hundreds of miles to the east._
2. Formed or preserved in the place where it originated, rather than carried there from elsewhere, including fossils preserved where the organisms lived.
   - Simple: Formed or kept where it began, rather than carried there from somewhere else.
   - _The scan showed an autochthonous thrombus that had formed inside the narrowed artery instead of traveling from the heart._
   - _Below the thrust fault, the rocks are autochthonous, still lying where they originally formed._

## Origin

Formed from autochthon + -ous, the word literally means "native to the soil."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/autochthonous (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).