Puelche
/ˈpwel.tʃe/noun
A member of an Indigenous people of the eastern Andes and adjacent Patagonia, and historically the name for related groups in Chile and Argentina.
Did you know?Puelche comes from Mapudungun puel, meaning “east,” plus -che, “people,” a reminder that many Indigenous names are built as precise, living descriptions rather than labels imposed by outsiders.
Etymological Timeline
Mapudungun
Map
puel-che
““east people,” a self-descriptive ethnonym for people associated with the east”
16th–19th Century
Spanish
puelche
“Spanish transcription of the Mapudungun ethnonym used for Indigenous groups east of the Andes”
Modern English
English
Puelche
“A name used in historical and ethnographic writing for certain Indigenous peoples of Patagonia and Chile”
Modern Linguistics
Mapudungun
puel
“east”
Modern Linguistics
Mapudungun
che
“people”