Thread: Cuiabá's name?

Where does Cuiabá get its name? Who named it Cuiabá? How long has it been called Cuiabá?

I do believe the name is of comes from an Indian word, supposedly meaning "arrow-fishing" and refers to the Bororo custom of the use of arrows for fishing.

There are several versions for the origin of the name "Cuiabá ". One says that the name comes from the word ikuiapá Bororo, which means "place of ikuia (ikuia: harpoon-arrow, arrow for fishing, made ​​a kind of wild cane, paddle, place). The name refers to a location where the Bororo used to hunt and fish with that arrow, the stream of Prainha, left tributary of the Cuiabá River.

Another possible explanation is that it would be an assemblage of Cuiabá kyyaverá (which Guarani means "River Otter brilliant") in cuyaverá, and finally after cuiavá cuiabá. A third hypothesis says that the origin of the word is in fact producing gourd trees existing along the river, and that "Cuiabá" would be the "river container maker" (bowl, bowl and flap: the creator).

Martius translates the word as "manufacturer or maker of gourds. " Teodoro Sampaio interprets as "man's meal", the mealy. From cuy: flour and flap: man. There are other versions with less historical basis, that are closer to the legend than fact. The truth is that until today no one knows the origin of the name.