Melanesian

English

Etymology

From Melanesia +‎ -an.

Adjective

Melanesian (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to Melanesia.
   • 2002, William C. Miller, Long Pig:

     While Melanesian cannibals make "long pig," barbecuing enemies, legal and political cannibals in San Francisco put a beautiful wealthy woman, Penny Penny Hill, on trial for murder […]

Derived terms

• Australo-Melanesian

Translations

referring to Melanesia

• Catalan: melanesi (ca)
• Finnish: melanesialainen
• French: mélanésien (fr)
• Irish: Meilinéiseach
• Italian: melanesiano (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: melanesisk

  Nynorsk: melanesisk

• Polish: melanezyjski (pl)
• Portuguese: melanésio (pt)
• Russian: меланези́йский (ru) (melanɛzíjskij)
• Spanish: melanesio (es)
• Swedish: melanesisk (sv)
• Tagalog: Timpuluanin

Noun

Melanesian (plural Melanesians)

1. A Melanesian person.
   • 2008, Andrew David Grainger, The Browning of the All Blacks: Pacific Peoples, Rugby, and the Cultural Politics of Identity in New Zealand‎^[1], page 326:

     Blackbirding was the euphemism given to the slave-trading that occurred in the Pacific from the mid-1800s through to the early-1900s. According to one study, blackbirding, [as] “the practice of luring Melanesians and Polynesians to toil for next to nothing was called”, involved upwards of 60,000 people between 1863 and 1904 (Horne, 2007, p. 2).

Translations

person living in or coming from Melanesia

• Catalan: melanesi (ca), melanèsia (ca) f
• Esperanto: melaneziano (man or woman), melanezianino (woman)
• Finnish: melanesialainen
• French: Mélanésien (fr) m, Mélanésienne (fr) f
• German: Melanesier (de) m, Melanesierin (de) f
• Irish: Meilinéiseach
• Italian: melanesiano (it) m, melanesiana f
• Kazakh: меланезиялық (melaneziälyq)
• Polish: Melanezyjczyk (pl) m, Melanezyjka (pl) f
• Russian: меланези́ец (ru) m (melanɛzíjec), меланези́йка (ru) f (melanɛzíjka)
• Tagalog: Timpuluanin

Related terms

• Melanesia