Pará River
/pəˈrɑː ˈrɪvər/noun
A major distributary of Brazil’s Amazon River system flowing through Pará state into the Atlantic Ocean.
Did you know?Pará comes from Tupi pará, meaning “river” or “large body of water,” while the added English word river makes the modern name a linguistic repetition.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Colonial period
Old Tupi
pará
“River, especially a large river or body of water”
16th Century
Tupi–Portuguese contact
Pará
“Indigenous geographical name adopted by Portuguese explorers and colonists”
17th Century
Colonial Portuguese
Grão-Pará
““Great Pará,” the name of a Portuguese colonial territory in northern Brazil”
18th Century
Portuguese
rio Pará
“Pará River; Portuguese rio was added to clarify the feature as a river”
19th Century
English
Pará River
“English rendering of the Brazilian river’s Portuguese name”
Modern English
English
Pará River
“A major Amazonian distributary and tidal waterway in northern Brazil”