U'wa
/ˈuː.wɑː/noun
The U'wa are an Indigenous people of northeastern Colombia and adjacent Venezuela, and U'wa is also the name of their language.
Did you know?The U'wa became internationally known for opposing oil exploration in their territory, warning that extracting petroleum would wound the Earth and endanger cosmic balance.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Colonial
U'wa
U'wa
“The community's own ethnonym; its precise historical literal meaning is not securely established in mainstream etymological sources.”
16th Century
Spanish
Tunebo
“A colonial-era Spanish name applied to the people now commonly called U'wa.”
19th Century
English/Spanish
Tunebo
“Tunebo continued as the principal exonym in ethnographic and colonial writing.”
20th Century
Anthropological English
U'wa
“The Indigenous self-designation increasingly replaced Tunebo in scholarly and public usage.”
Modern English
English
U'wa
“A proper noun referring to the Indigenous people, their language, and their cultural territory in the Colombia–Venezuela border region.”
Explore more surprising origins