taino

English - English

Definition of taino in English English dictionary

Their Arawakan language, now extinct

A group of pre-Columbian indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and some of the Lesser Antilles

{i} language of the Taino people

{i} member of an extinct American Indian people who lived on the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas

Extinct Arawak Indian group of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. They also inhabited Puerto Rico and the eastern tip of Cuba. They grew cassava and corn (maize), hunted birds and small animals, and fished. They were skillful at working stone and wood. Their society consisted of three tiers nobles, commoners, and slaves and they were ruled by hereditary chiefs and subchiefs; religious beliefs centred on a hierarchy of nature spirits and ancestors. They became extinct within 100 years of the Spanish conquest

Hyphenation

Tai·no