Etimologias Chile Page

Below, Don Evaristo had added: In the swamp forests of Chiloé, the coihue trees grow roots that drink from two worlds. A traveler once drank from a pool beneath them and forgot his own name for three days. The water looks sweet. It is only truth.

From Quechua: cura (priest) + caví (to see). But the people of the Maule say it comes from curi (black) + caví (lookout). A hill where the Spanish once hanged a female healer. Her last word became the name of the town. No one remembers the word. Only the shape it left in the air.

Luna felt a chill that had nothing to do with the Patagonian winter. etimologias chile

“Abuelo, this is absurd.”

She laughed. Then she stopped laughing.

She remembered. She had never told anyone else.

(the chilean horsefly). From onomatopoeia: chuch-oca (the buzz that precedes a sting). But a huaso in Rancagua insisted it comes from chu (to suck) + choca (to startle). “The fly is the devil’s teaspoon,” he said. “It stirs your blood to remind you you have some.” Below, Don Evaristo had added: In the swamp

“Then you don’t know our Chile,” he smiled, sliding the manuscript toward her. “Read the first entry.”