Peruvian

How to spell peruvian

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce peruvian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does peruvian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Peru, its people, or its culture.
2. nounA person from Peru or a citizen of Peru.

Peruvian in a sentence

• adjective

  The restaurant serves a traditional peruvian ceviche made with fresh lime.

• noun

  Every peruvian at the embassy queued patiently to renew a passport.

• adjective

  The museum opened a new exhibit on ancient peruvian textiles and pottery.

• noun

  The marathon was won by a young peruvian from the highlands near Cusco.

Where does peruvian come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

This word is formed from the name of the South American country Peru combined with the suffix -vian, which English uses to turn certain place names into adjectives and nouns of origin, as in 'Bolivian'. The country name itself reached English through Spanish 'Peru', the term the Spanish conquerors applied to the Inca empire in the early sixteenth century. Its ultimate source is uncertain, but a popular account traces it to 'Biru', the name of a local ruler or river that Spanish explorers encountered near the Bay of San Miguel around 1522, after which the label spread to the wider land to the south. By the seventeenth century English writers were using 'Peruvian' to describe the people, products, and silver of that region. The spelling trap is the smooth, unstressed middle: the '-uvi-' sequence is easy to garble, and the single 'r' is sometimes mistakenly doubled.

How the word is built

• Peru (the country)
• -vian (adjective/noun suffix denoting origin)