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carrancha. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
carrancha, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
carrancha in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Apparently first attested in English in 1839, in the writings of Darwin, and usually said to be from a native name imitating the bird's cry. However, compare dialectal Spanish carrancha (“dog collar with spikes”)[1] (from *carrancula), a form of carlanca (metathesized from *carcannula, from Late Latin carcannum[2]): the birds' coloration does sometimes resemble a collar.
This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Noun
carrancha (plural carranchas)
- The Brazilian kite (Polyborus brasiliensis).
References
- ^ David Pharies, Origin of the Spanish -nch- Suffixes (1994, academia.edu), mentions "And. carrancha 'mastiff collar with iron spikes', " (in a list of words with -nch-)
- ^ Iberoromania (in Spanish), 1994, page 33: “carrancha And. n. f. 'carlanca' (Alcalá Venceslada 1951: 136) < *carrancula, prob. a metathesized form of *carcannula < Late Latin carcannum”; see also RAE