Filipino
PluralFilipinos
PluralFilipinos
- 1A citizen or resident of the Philippines, or a person of Philippine descent.
As a Filipino raised in California, she visits her relatives in Cebu each summer.
Overseas Filipinos remit billions of dollars to the country every year.
SimilarPinoy
Note
A name that carries a king inside it. Spanish filipino joins Felipe to the demonym ending -ino, after las Islas Filipinas, the islands named for Philip II of Spain. In English it is an ordinary count noun with the plural Filipinos. It covers citizens, residents and people of Philippine descent abroad alike, and Pinoy can stand in for it as a synonym.
- 2Belonging to, coming from, or connected with the Philippines and the peoples, languages, and cultures of the islands.
She grew up speaking several Filipino languages at home.
The museum's new wing showcases Filipino weaving traditions from across the islands.
SimilarPhilippine
- 3A language based on Tagalog that serves as the national language of the Philippines.
Street signs in the capital appear in both Filipino and English.
She translated the novel into Filipino for readers back home.
Note
As a language name it takes no article and no plural: people speak Filipino, write in Filipino and translate into Filipino. Pilipino names the same language. Tagalog appears beside it as a synonym because Filipino is built on Tagalog, though the national language is the broader term.
- 4A male citizen or inhabitant of the Philippines.
The bride was a Filipina from Manila, and the groom a Filipino from Davao.
He became the first Filipino to win the men's title at the tournament.
OppositeFilipina
Note
Here the Spanish grammar behind the word shows through. Filipino is a masculine form, which is why it can single out a man rather than any person from the islands. The origin is told under the general meaning. In practice, context decides. Without a cue such as he or a contrast with a woman, readers take the word in that broader sense.
- 5Relating to Tagalog, the language on which the national language of the Philippines is based.
The textbook explains Filipino verb prefixes inherited directly from Tagalog.
Her thesis traces how Filipino word order keeps the Tagalog habit of putting the verb first.
SimilarTagalog
Note
The narrower adjective belongs to linguistics, not to the nation. Here Filipino grammar means the grammar the national language inherits from Tagalog. Context separates it from the broad national adjective: a Filipino dish is national, while a Filipino verb prefix is linguistic. Like its sibling, it does not compare, so nothing is more Filipino in this sense.
Less common meaning
- 6A Philippine-born man of pure or mostly Spanish descent.
Note
A colonial-era label the word has since outgrown: a man born in the islands but of Spanish descent, a Spaniard in all but birthplace. The name itself points back to Spain, since las Islas Filipinas were named for King Philip II. Expect this meaning only in historical writing. Today the word means any citizen of the Philippines, so use this older sense only with a gloss, or readers will misread it.
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Practice
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Origin
From Spanish 'filipino', formed from Felipe plus the suffix '-ino', a demonym for 'las Islas Filipinas' (the Philippine Islands), which were named after King Philip II of Spain. In the Spanish Colonial Era the term first referred only to a male Philippine-born person of pure or majority Spanish descent, before it was applied as a nationality for every citizen of the Philippines from the First Philippine Republic.