Nomenclature
Ayahuasca is known by many names throughout Northern South America and Brazil.
Ayahuasca is the Hispanicized spelling of a word in the Quechua languages, which are spoken in the Andean states of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. Speakers of Quechua languages or of the Aymara language may prefer the spelling ayawaska. This word refers both to the vine Banisteriopsis caapi, and to the healing brew prepared from it. In the Quechua languages, aya means "spirit", and waska means "vine". The word ayahuasca has been variously translated as "vine of the soul", "vine of the dead", and "spirit vine".
In Brazil, the brew and the vine are informally called either caapi or cipó; the latter is the Portuguese word for liana (or woody climbing vine). In the União do Vegetal of Brazil, an organised spiritual tradition in which people drink ayahuasca, the brew is prepared exclusively from B. caapi and P. viridis. Adherents of União do Vegetal call this brew hoasca, daime, or santo daime.
In the Tucanoan languages it is called yagé or yajé (both pronounced ). The Achuar people and Shuar people of Ecuador and Peru call it natem, whereas the Nahua peoples of Peru call it shori.
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