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The term "Filipino" originally referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines, also known as insulares, criollos or español filipino.
This distinguished them from Spaniards born in Europe who were known as peninsulares during the time The Philippines was a Spanish colony. By the mid to late nineteenth century, however, the term "Filipino" had begun to refer to the indigenous population of the Philippines.
According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, José Rizal was the first to call the native inhabitants "Filipinos".
Filipinos may refer to themselves as Pinoy (feminine: Pinay), which is formed by taking the last four letters of Pilipino and adding the diminutive suffix -y. The word was coined by expatriate Filipino Americans during the 1920s and was later adopted by Filipinos in the Philippines.
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