Negrito
/nɪˈɡriːtəʊ
/noun (plural Negritos)
A member of a black people of short stature native to the Austronesian region.Intermarriage with Austronesians, and the adoption of their technologies might have led the so-called Negritos to adopt Austronesian languages, but a substrate of vocabulary from the earlier languages remains in some of them....
- The country's indigenous population includes the orang asli, which is commonly divided into the Negritos (a nomadic hunting people), the Senoi (an agrarian people), and the Jakun (an agrarian people).
- Controversial Australian historian Keith Windschuttle recently published a definitive study on Australia's short-stature tribes, referred to variously as Pygmies, Negritos, Tasmanoids, and Barrineans.
Origin
Spanish, diminutive of negro 'black' (see Negro); compare with Negrillo.