"indigenous" 'intrinsic'

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jun 17 14:25:06 UTC 2010


>From NYTimes "Opinionator" blog entry, beginning of second paragraph:

The seething anger that seems to be an indigenous aspect of the Tea Party
movement arises, I think, at the very place where politics and metaphysics
meet, where metaphysical sentiment becomes political belief.
(http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/the-very-angry-tea-party,
The Very Angry Tea Party, By J.M. BERNSTEIN)

AHD3 gives two definitions of "indigenous":
1. Originating and growing or living in an area or environment. See synonyms
at "native".
2. Intrinsic; innate

Bernstein is clearly using sense 2. Most uses I remember of the word are
associated with languages, peoples, or biota, to the extent that until I
looked it up I thought he was reaching for "intrinsic" or "innate" and
missing.

Mark Mandel

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