Arauco?

[Nicholas Ostler]

At 12:51 am +0000 29/11/99, kate riley wrote:
>Dear List:
>
>A question from a writer friend:
>
>There is a tree in Chile labeled by a 17th or 18th century
>priest Araucaria araucana Pehuen.   There is also a town near Concepcion
>Chile called Arauco.  The Mapuche and other indigenes of Chile have been
>generally referred to as Araucarians.  Does anyone know (or know
>someone who might know) the origins of these terms and/or the histories
>of these namings?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Kate Riley

My Webster's New World dictionary (ed. Victoria Neufeldt, David B.
Guralnik; Simon & Schuster 1988: an amazingly useful resource when it comes
to the etymology of Amerind names) gives as the etymology of Arauco:
Araucanian: rau "clay" + ko "water"
My Mapuche/Mapudungun dictionary (Mapuche 6, ed. Esteban Erize, Editorial
Yepun, Buenos Aires 1990) confirms these glosses
"rau" por "rag": greda comun (5:151)
"co": agua (3:59)
The references in parentheses show that the words were discussed in
previous volumes of Erize's opus, but I do not have them to check.

I cannot comment on the authenticity or history of this etymology, however.
And I do not know Mapudungun.  I am copying this to two linguists who do:

Antonio D’az-Fern‡ndez  <chalimin at cybersnet.com.ar>
and
Rosendo Huisca-Melinao <rhuisca at entelchile.net>, <rhuisca at uctem.cl>

Best wishes

Nicholas Ostler

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