The term Negrito refers to several dwindling ethnic groups in isolated parts of Southeast Asia. No other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups. Their current populations include the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and at least 25 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, the Mani of Thailand and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands of India.
Negritos share common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin, however, their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans and Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendents of settlers from an early migration out of Africa, or that they are descendents of one of the founder populations of modern humans.
The term "Negrito" is the Spanish diminutive of Negro, i.e. "little black person", referring to their small stature, and was coined by early European explorers who assumed that the Negritos were from Africa. Occasionally, some Negrito are referred to as pygmies, bundling them with peoples of similar physical stature in Central Africa, and likewise, the term Negrito was previously occasionally used to refer to African Pygmies.
According to James J.Y. Liu, a professor of comparative literature, the Chinese term Kun-lun (traditional Chinese: 崑崙) means Negrito.