Autochthonie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of having originated in the very place where one is found, rather than having migrated there from somewhere else
2. Being indigenous to a region, so that a people or species has developed there from the earliest times
3. Native origin in a specific locale, meaning that something arose on the spot instead of being brought in from elsewhere

Etymology: Athenians once claimed that their ancestors had never migrated in. They insisted they had sprung directly from the soil of Attica, and the myth of Erichthonius, a child born from the earth after Hephaestus's semen fell on Gaia, supported the claim. The Greek adjective "autochthon" combines "autos", meaning "self", with "chthon", meaning "earth", so it literally means "sprung from the land itself." English borrowed the Greek root in the seventeenth century, first as the adjective "autochthonous" and later as the noun "autochthony", which describes the condition of being indigenous to a place. Modern writers use it in debates over who belongs to a land and who arrived later. The spelling "autochthonie" is a French-style variant, and English usually writes the noun with a "y".