653: indio and indigo Sep 21, 2016

Sometimes in series of words, there may be an existing overarching historical theme that is now lost from its meaning. Europeans learned, for example, early on that the Americas were not India, yet the word stuck around for a long time, and in comparison to 'Indians', 'Native American' or 'First Nation' are much newer. For certain peoples though, this concept didn't go away, and 'Indio' is the term for any indigenous American those of eastern Asia in once under the rule of Spain or Portugal, still used today, and it means nothing more than ‘Indian’ in the languages of those two aforesaid countries. Moving on from ethic groups, the color 'indigo' comes via Portuguese, and Latin from Greek meaning 'Indian', as India is home to many plants from which blue dyes are extracted exclusively, even today.