inhabitant

Definition

Someone or thing who lives in a place.

Etymology

From Middle English inhabitantes (n. plural) and inhabitaunt (adj.), from Old French inhabitant, from Latin inhabitāns, present participle of inhabitō (“to inhabit”), from in- (“in”) + habitō (“to dwell”) (frequentative of habeō (“to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to seize, take, hold, have”). By surface analysis, inhabit + -ant.

Example Sentences

• "I believed it in the same way one of you might believe there are inhabitants in the planet Mars. I knew once a Scotch sailmaker who was certain, dead sure, there were people in Mars."
• "It was obvious to the inhabitants of the small coastal town of Bridport that in the midst of these squabbles their need for a railway was going to be overlooked, and they decided to take the matter into their own hands."
• "About 98 per cent of Taiwan's inhabitants are Han Chinese, a diverse mix of ethnic and linguistic groups, including Hakka, Cantonese and Fujianese, who came from China's southern coast. Taiwan's other two per cent are from one of the nine indigenous tribes, which are scattered throughout the island but largely concentrated along the east coast and in the Central Mountain Range."

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