Link Centre Dictionary

Austronesian

aust·ro·ne·sian

UK/ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/ uncommon

adjective

1.

of or relating to or characteristic of Austronesia or its people or culture

noun

2.

the family of languages spoken in Australia and Formosa and Malaysia and Polynesia

Origin

Borrowed from German Austronesisch; coined by Wilhelm Schmidt. From Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ian.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.