[antir-heralds] OED check request - llama

[chrisact at qwickconnect.net]

Ursula Whitcher wrote:
> Britt wrote:
>   
>> I've fallen in with another bad crowd, some nice folks wanting a llama
>> as a charge. I know it can be done with documentation, so I'm helping
>> find same.  Would someone with an OED please check to see what the
>> earliest citation of the word might be? I think this one's a wild
>> goose chase, but it pays to be thorough.
>>     
>
> The first citation is from 1600, Hakluyt's Voyages:
>
> An Indian boy driuing 8. Llamas or sheepe of Peru which are as big as asses.
>
> Sounds promising.
>
> Ursula Georges.
>   

I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier.

The online OED has the following etymology:

"Sp. /llama/, quoted as a Peruvian name of the animal in 1535 (Oviedo 
/Hist. Peru/ ed. 1851 I. 418);"

So, the first know use in English is from 1600, but this use, in 
*Europe*, goes back further, to 1535. IOW, it's definitely in period. :-)


~~Basil Dragonstrike

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