ayahuasca

From Spanish ayahuasca, from Quechua ayawaska, from aya (“spirit, ancestor”) + waska (“vine”). First use appears c. 1870. See cite below.

• IPA^(key): /ˌaɪəˈwɑːskə/

• Audio (General Australian):

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ayahuasca (usually uncountable, plural ayahuascas)

1. A giant vine native to South America (especially Banisteriopsis caapi), noted for its psychotropic properties.
2. Any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from this vine.

   Synonym: yage

   • 1870, James Orton, The Andes and the Amazon, Or, Across the Continent of South America, page 171:

     They make use of a narcotic drink called Ayahuasca, which produces effects similar to those of opium.

   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, “Nouveau Psychedelia”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 414:

     As the Amazon forest people would take ayahuasca and enter into that place of Group Mind where they would make decisions for the tribe, the psychedelic shamanic acts that McKenna was promulgating would involve the experience of ecstasy and the contemplation of wholeness.

   • 2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

     Like many young women in that cultural era, she was excited to explain ayahuasca, and informed me that her appointment was scheduled for next week, when she would be leaving New York to visit family in Rio.

• IPA^(key): [ˈajavaska]

ayahuasca f

1. ayahuasca

• IPA^(key): /a.ja.was.ka/

ayahuasca m (uncountable)

1. ayahuasca

ayahuasca f (plural ayahuascas)

1. ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi, a vine of South America)

   Synonym: iagê

2. ayahuasca (psychoactive infusion made from the ayahuasca vine)

   Synonym: daime

Borrowed from Quechua ayawaska.

• Rhymes: -aska
• Syllabification: a‧ya‧huas‧ca

ayahuasca f (plural ayahuascas)

1. ayahuasca
2. a psychotropic concoction prepared from said vine

• → English: ayahuasca

• “ayahuasca”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024