Indian

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A term used to identify individuals or elements associated with India, highlighting its cultural and linguistic richness, while also designating the native peoples of the Americas with their unique traditions and histories
2. A term describing a person or element originating from India, encompassing its diverse cultural heritage, and also referring to the original inhabitants of the Americas with their distinct identities
3. Pertaining to the nation of India and its cultural, ethnic, or linguistic traits ; referring to the Indigenous peoples originally inhabiting lands in the Western Hemisphere

Etymology: Columbus never knew he had reached a new continent, and the name he carried home stuck to the people he met. He sailed west in 1492 hoping to reach Asia, and when he landed in the Caribbean he took the islands to be part of the East. The mistaken geography shaped the vocabulary: the islands became the "West Indies," and the people living there and across the Americas came to be called Indians. The word itself is built plainly. In Middle English "Indien" came from Anglo-Norman and Middle French "indien," formed from "Ind" (the old name for India) with the suffix "-ian" or from "India" with "-an." Its original reference was simply to the land and people of India, which is still the primary sense of the adjective and noun. Because the misconception was so durable, English speakers today use one word for two very different groups. Context usually decides which is meant, and many people now prefer more specific terms when speaking of the native peoples of the Americas.