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Tupi-Guarani Much of English is made up of words from other languages, and the Tupi-Guarani group of South American languages is a small but significant contributor in this respect. Names of unfamiliar animals and birds reached English relatively soon after Europeans discovered the New World (usually via Portuguese, Spanish, or sometimes French): the agouti and the toucan in the mid-16th century, the capybara, eyra, jaguar, and tanager in the early 17th, followed later by, for example, cougar, jabiru, piranha, and tapir. Foodstuffs were adopted: manioc (mid-16th century), cashew (late 16th), cayenne pepper, and tapioca, for example. Valuable products and their sources became known and used, for instance, ipecac (a plant from whose dried roots an emetic is made, early 17th century), jacaranda (a tree with a valuable wood), and jaborandi (a bush whose dried leaves yield the drug pilocarpine). Tupi also gave us (via Portuguese) the sound of the maraca (early 17th century).
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