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prettygoodwordTheme week! Andean animals, starting with:
alpaca (al-PAK-uh) - n., a domesticated South American ruminant (Vicugna pacos or Lama pacos) having long, soft, silky fleece; the wool from this animal; a thin cloth made of this wool; a rayon or cotton imitation of this cloth.
Thanks, Wikimedia!
The family relationships of the South American camelids is hard to untangle, and you can find different descriptions, but basically the alpaca is a domesticated version of a vicuña with some interbreeding from either llamas or guanacos or both. The name is easier: in this case, we got it in 1792 from Spanish alpaca, in turn from Aymara allpaca (the equivalent Quechua name is p'ake, yellowish-red).
---L.
alpaca (al-PAK-uh) - n., a domesticated South American ruminant (Vicugna pacos or Lama pacos) having long, soft, silky fleece; the wool from this animal; a thin cloth made of this wool; a rayon or cotton imitation of this cloth.
Thanks, Wikimedia!
The family relationships of the South American camelids is hard to untangle, and you can find different descriptions, but basically the alpaca is a domesticated version of a vicuña with some interbreeding from either llamas or guanacos or both. The name is easier: in this case, we got it in 1792 from Spanish alpaca, in turn from Aymara allpaca (the equivalent Quechua name is p'ake, yellowish-red).
---L.
