chuckwalla
Jun. 19th, 2018 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordchuckwalla (HUUHK-wah-luh) - n., any of six large herbivorous lizards (genus Sauromalus) of the southwest United States and Mexico.
They are large, with stocky bodies and prominent bellies, and if they remind you a little of iguanas, they are relatives. The name is an Americanism -- no surprise given range -- first appearing in the 1860s, from California Spanish chacahuala, from either Cahuilla čáxwal or Shoshone tcáxxwal, both Uto-Aztecan languages. The most common chuckwalla is the, well, common chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater):
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
They are large, with stocky bodies and prominent bellies, and if they remind you a little of iguanas, they are relatives. The name is an Americanism -- no surprise given range -- first appearing in the 1860s, from California Spanish chacahuala, from either Cahuilla čáxwal or Shoshone tcáxxwal, both Uto-Aztecan languages. The most common chuckwalla is the, well, common chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater):
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
