Ayahuasca
Etymology
Etymology
---------

*Ayahuasca* is the [hispanicized](/wiki/Hispanicized "Hispanicized") spelling (i.e., spelled according to Spanish orthography) of a word that originates from the [Quechuan languages](/wiki/Quechuan_languages "Quechuan languages"), which are spoken in the Andean states of [Ecuador](/wiki/Ecuador "Ecuador"), [Bolivia](/wiki/Bolivia "Bolivia"), [Peru](/wiki/Peru "Peru"), and [Colombia](/wiki/Colombia "Colombia"). Speakers of Quechuan languages who use [modern Quechuan orthography](/wiki/Quechuan_languages%23Orthography "Quechuan languages#Orthography") spell it *ayawaska*. The word refers both to the [liana](/wiki/Liana "Liana") *[Banisteriopsis caapi](/wiki/Banisteriopsis_caapi "Banisteriopsis caapi")*, and to the brew prepared from it. In the Quechua languages, *aya* means "spirit, soul", or "corpse, dead body", and *waska* means "rope" or "woody vine", "[liana](/wiki/Liana "Liana")".Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua\-Spanish dictionary) The word *ayahuasca* has been variously translated as "liana of the soul", "liana of the dead", and "spirit liana". In the [cosmovision](/wiki/Cosmovision "Cosmovision") of its users, the ayahuasca is the vine that allows the spirit to wander detached from the body, entering the spiritual world, otherwise forbidden for the alive.

### Common Names

Although **ayahuasca** is the most widely used term in [Peru](/wiki/Peru "Peru"), [Bolivia](/wiki/Bolivia "Bolivia"), [Ecuador](/wiki/Ecuador "Ecuador") and Brazil, the brew is known by many names throughout northern South America:

* **hoasca** or **oasca** in Brazil
* ***yagé*** (or *yajé*, from the [Cofán language](/wiki/Cof%C3%A1n_language "Cofán language") or **iagê** in [Portuguese](/wiki/Portuguese_language "Portuguese language")). Relatively widespread use in [Andean](/wiki/Andes "Andes") and [Amazonian](/wiki/Amazon_rainforest "Amazon rainforest") regions throughout the border areas of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. The Cofán people also use the word **oofa**.
* **caapi** (or *kahpi/gahpi* in [Tupi–Guarani language](/wiki/Tupi%E2%80%93Guarani_languages "Tupi–Guarani languages") or *kaapi* in [proto\-Arawak language](/wiki/Proto-Arawak_language "Proto-Arawak language")), used to address both the brew and the *B. caapi* itself. Meaning "weed" or "thin leaf", was the word utilized by [Spruce](/wiki/Richard_Spruce "Richard Spruce") for naming the liana
* **pinde** (or *pindê/pilde*), used by the [Colorado](/wiki/Ts%C3%A1chila "Tsáchila") people
* **patem** (or *nátema*), from the [Chicham languages](/wiki/Chicham_languages "Chicham languages")
* **shori**, **mii** (or *miiyagi*) and **uni**, from the [Yaminawa language](/wiki/Yaminawa_language "Yaminawa language")
* **nishi cobin**, from the [Shipibo language](/wiki/Shipibo_language "Shipibo language")
* **nixi pae**, **shuri**, **ondi**, **rambi** and **rame**, from the [Kashinawa language](/wiki/Kashinawa_language "Kashinawa language")
* **kaji, kadana** and **kadanapira**, used by [Tucano people](/wiki/Tucano_people "Tucano people")
* **kamarampi** (or *kamalampi*) and **hananeroca**, from the [Arawakan languages](/wiki/Arawakan_languages "Arawakan languages")DE MORI, Brabec (2011\): Tracing Hallucinations – Contributing to a Critical Ethnohistory of Ayahuasca Usage in the Peruvian Amazon
* **bakko**, from [Bora\-Muiname language](/wiki/Bora-Muiname "Bora-Muiname")Seifart, Frank, \& Echeverri, Juan Alvaro (2015\). [Proto Bora\-Muinane](https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/liames/article/view/8642303). *LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas*, 15(2\), 279 \- 311\. 
* **jono pase**, useb by [Ese'Ejja people](/wiki/Ese_Ejja_people "Ese Ejja people")
* **uipa**, from [Guahibo language](/wiki/Guahibo_language "Guahibo language")
* **napa** (or *nepe/nepi*), used by [Tsáchila people](/wiki/Ts%C3%A1chila "Tsáchila")
* **Biaxije**, from [Camsá language](/wiki/Cams%C3%A1_language "Camsá language")Huber, Randall Q. and Robert B. Reed. 1992\. *[Vocabulario comparativo: Palabras selectas de lenguas indígenas de Colombia (Comparative vocabulary: Selected words in indigenous languages of Colombia)](https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/18886)*. Bogota, Colombia: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
* **Cipó** ("liana") or **Vegetal**, in [Portuguese language](/wiki/Portuguese_language "Portuguese language"), used by União do Vegetal church members
* **Daime** or **Santo Daime**, meaning "give me" in Portuguese, the term was coined by Santo Daime's founder [Mestre Irineu](/wiki/Mestre_Irineu "Mestre Irineu") in the 1940s, from a prayer *dai\-me alegria, dai\-me resistência* ("give me happiness, give me strength"). Daime members also uses the words **Luz** ("light") or **Santa Luz** ("holy light")
* Some nomenclature are created by the cultural and symbolic signification of ayahuasca, with names like *planta professora* ("plant teacher"), *professor dos professores* ("teacher of the teachers"), *sagrada medicina* ("holy medicine") or *la purga* ("the purge").

#### Other names in the Western world

In the last decades, two new important terminologies emerged. Both are commonly used in the Western world in [neoshamanic](/wiki/Neoshamanism "Neoshamanism"), [recreative](/wiki/Recreational_drug_use "Recreational drug use") or [pharmaceutical](/wiki/Medication "Medication") contexts to address ayahuasca\-like substances created without the traditional botanical species, due to it being expensive and/or hard to find in these countries. These concepts are surrounded by some controversies involving [ethnobotany](/wiki/Ethnobotany "Ethnobotany"), patents, [commodification](/wiki/Commodification "Commodification") and [biopiracy](/wiki/Biopiracy "Biopiracy"):

* **Anahuasca** (ayahuasca analogues). A term usually used to refer to the ayahuasca produced with other plant species as sources of DMT (e.g., *[Mimosa hostilis](/wiki/Mimosa_hostilis "Mimosa hostilis")*) or β\-carbolines (e.g., *[Peganum harmala](/wiki/Peganum_harmala "Peganum harmala")*).
* **Pharmahuasca** (pharmaceutical ayahuasca). This indicates the [pills](/wiki/Capsule_%28pharmacy%29 "Capsule (pharmacy)") produced from freebase DMT, synthetic harmaline, MAOI medications (such as [moclobemide](/wiki/Moclobemide "Moclobemide")) and other isolated or purified compounds or extracts.

Why were new terminologies like 'Anahuasca' and 'Pharmahuasca' created?