alpaca

Where does the word "alpaca" come from? It comes from Aymara allpaqa, passing through Spanish before entering English (1700s-1800s).

Alpaca’s story begins in Aymara: allpaqa meant “alpaca.” The name for the domesticated, wool-bearing Andean animal. By 1500s-1600s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as alpaca. The Spanish met the animal in the Inca Empire, where its wool was a state resource. It reached English by 1700s-1800s as alpaca. Titus Salt's Yorkshire mills made alpaca cloth fashionable in the 1830s. Today, alpaca means a domesticated South American camelid raised for its soft wool.

1. Stage 1 · Aymara · pre-1500s allpaqa "alpaca", the name for the domesticated, wool-bearing Andean animal.
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1500s-1600s alpaca "alpaca", the Spanish met the animal in the Inca Empire, where its wool was a state resource.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1700s-1800s alpaca "a domesticated Andean camelid raised for its wool", Titus Salt's Yorkshire mills made alpaca cloth fashionable in the 1830s.