pampas

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

Pampas’s story begins in Quechua: pampa meant “a plain.” Meaning "a plain" or "flat area". By 1500s-1600s, the word had taken hold in Spanish as pampas. Quechua 'plain'. It reached English by 1700s-1800s as pampas. Darwin described the pampas in his 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839). Today, pampas means the extensive, treeless grassy plains of South America.

1. Stage 1 · Quechua · pre-1500s pampa "a plain", meaning "a plain" or "flat area".
2. Stage 2 · Spanish · 1500s-1600s pampas "vast grassy plains", Quechua 'plain'.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1700s-1800s pampas "the extensive grassy plains of South America", Darwin described the pampas in his 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839).