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BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-alpaca

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9 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.

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historical dictionarymw-alpaca

Alpaca — Word History

AUTHOR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster Editors
YEAR
2026
PUBLISHER
Merriam-Webster
DOI
Not recorded
SOURCE TYPE
historical dictionary
EXTERNAL RECORD
OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
2CANONICAL EDGES
1WITNESSES
1COMPARISONS
1CONTEXT LINKS
1RANKED REVEALS
1DISPUTES
2JOURNEY STAGES
2WORD DOSSIERS
01

CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS

RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

1
02

SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT

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03

CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS

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2
EDGE 348supportsestablished

alpaca → alpaca

Present-Day English → Spanish · borrowing

SOUND
English adopted Spanish alpaca with pronunciation adaptation.
MEANING
Animal, fiber, and cloth senses expanded in English.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster editors
Word History — Spanish

Identifies the immediate Spanish source.

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EDGE 349supportsestablished

alpaca → allphaqa

Spanish → Aymara · borrowing

SOUND
Spanish adapted an Aymara form represented as allpaqa, all-paka, or modern official allphaqa.
MEANING
The Aymara animal name remained the animal label and later supported fiber and cloth senses.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster · RAE · Peruvian Ministry of Education editors
Word History — from Aymara allpaqa

Identifies the Aymara source and one spelling.

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04

LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS

WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE

1
05

COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE

COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES

1
alpaca

allpaqa

Aymara

Dictionary spelling of the Aymara source form.

06

GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS

JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

2
07

NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS

HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE

1
parallel borrowingsupports

Two Andean animals, two language families

Llama and alpaca both reached English through Spanish, but the donor words are Quechua llama and Aymara allpaqa / allphaqa. Geographic and zoological association does not make the names cognates.

llama↔alpaca
Merriam-Webster · Peruvian Ministry of Education editors · established
08

WORD-FAMILY REUSE

DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE

2
alpaca9 CLAIM LINKS↗llama1 CLAIM LINKS↗

2 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.