Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

carrancha

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: car-ran-cha
IPA

16

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The Brazilian kite (Polyborus brasiliensis).

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”) (from *carrancula), a form of carlanca (metathesized from *carcannula, from Late Latin carcannum): the birds' coloration does sometimes resemble a collar.

Inflected Forms

carranchas (plural)

Questions

What does carrancha mean?: The Brazilian kite (Polyborus brasiliensis).
Where does carrancha come from?: 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”) (from *carrancula), a form of carlanca (metathesized from *carcannula, from Late Latin carcannum): the birds' coloration does sometimes resemble a collar.

How to pronounce carrancha

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