Glossary
Every word we use,
defined once.
If a word here sent you looking, it belongs on this page. If not — tell us.
How to read this list
- course word — in our database; spelled our teachers’ way.
- pending speaker check — written down by ear, waiting for a fluent speaker to say it aloud.
- not Shipibo — Spanish, Quechua, or regional Spanish. Several famous words here are not Shipibo; saying so is half this page’s point.
The pronunciations get you close. Audio, in a named speaker’s voice, is coming.
Shipibo e is [ɨ], the second syllable of roses; o is [ʊ], as in book. So kené is kuh-NUH, not “keh-NEH”.
The people and the language
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipibo-Konibo shee-PEE-boo KOO-nee-boo | The people, and their language | The standard pairing. Konibo and Xetebo: related groups folded into the population. | not Shipibo |
| jonibo hoo-NEE-boo | People — what they call themselves | Joni, person; -bo, plural. Their word — not “Shipibo”. | pending speaker check |
| nawabo nah-WAH-boo | Outsiders, strangers, not-people | Everyone who is not Shipibo. You, and us. | pending speaker check |
| shípi SHEE-pee | The pygmy marmoset | “Shipibo” is built on this pet monkey — a neighbours’ nickname that stuck. | pending speaker check |
| Chama CHA-mah | A slur | Mestizo usage. Do not use it. | not Shipibo |
Healers and healing
Retreat marketing treats these four as interchangeable. They are not.
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| onanya oo-NAHN-yah | One who knows — a healer through plants and song | The retreat word. Built on onan-, to know. | pending speaker check |
| onanyabo oo-nahn-YAH-boo | Onanya, plural | -bo, the plural, at work. | pending speaker check |
| meraya muh-RAH-yah | One who sees | The highest standing there is — seeing ahead rather than curing. He fished, hunted and gardened besides; never full-time. | pending speaker check |
| shaman — | English catch-all | Avoided here: one borrowed Siberian word flattening three roles. | not Shipibo |
| curandero / maestro — | Spanish | Pan-Amazonian, used even by Shipibo people speaking Spanish. | not Shipibo |
| Almost everyone healed to some degree; the meraya was the exception. The retreat economy needed a specialist and erased the rest. | |||
Plants and medicine
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ráo RAH-oo | Plant, medicine, and the power in it — at once | One word for all three. Not vagueness; the idea. The plants → | course word |
| óni OO-nee | The vine preparation — what the world calls ayahuasca | Cut, pounded, boiled for hours. Older gloss: “dead man’s vine”. | course word |
| ayahuasca ah-yah-WAH-skah | The brew | Quechua, not Shipibo. The world’s term, so we use it — but it is from the Andes, not this river. | not Shipibo |
| nishi NEE-shee | Vine | An older name for the vine. Not in our database yet. | pending speaker check |
| mapacho mah-PAH-choh | Strong jungle tobacco, Nicotiana rustica | Spanish. The ceremony’s working plant — smoke carries the song, clears heaviness, holds protection. | not Shipibo |
| samá sah-MAH | The dieta | Long restriction, isolation, discipline — glossed as dieta, energetic mastery, connection with plant spirits. The dieta → | course word |
| lupuna / shóno loo-POO-nah | A very large tree | Dangerous to cut; it holds the layered worlds apart. | pending speaker check |
Song
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ícaro EE-kah-roh | A healing song | Not a Shipibo word. Regional Spanish, from Quechua ikaray, to blow smoke while singing — many peoples’ songs, every retreat’s word. | not Shipibo |
| bewá buh-WAH | Song | The Shipibo word, in our database — though what a singer calls their songs is theirs to say. | course word |
| huihua wee-WAH | Song | Spelled by a different ear. | pending speaker check |
| Some songs are given only voice to voice: we publish no recordings of ícaros or bewá, and do not ask. If a singer offers one freely, with their name on it, we will say so. | |||
Art and things
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| kené kuh-NUH | The geometric design | Cloth, pottery, paddles, historically faces. Made mostly by women. Kené → | course word |
| kewé kuh-WUH | Design worked into cloth | Embroidery, finished piece, or action? A fluent speaker will settle it. | pending speaker check |
| nanë nah-NUH | Genipa — the blue-black dye | Huito in regional Spanish. For face designs, including newborns’. | pending speaker check |
| chomo CHOO-moo | The big storage jar | Cane juice ferments there two weeks. | pending speaker check |
| quënquësh kun-KUSH | A potsherd | Few languages keep the word; old sherds were ground into new clay. | pending speaker check |
| chitonte / racote — | Skirt / painted cotton shawl | The racote also carried babies. | pending speaker check |
The world, and the river
| Word | Means | What to know | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nete NUH-tuh | World, day, time-space at once | Our course teaches four worlds by this word. Cosmology → | course word |
| kayá kah-YAH | The soul — a shadow-like second self | It leaves at death, travels in sleep. | course word |
| yoshin YOO-sheen | Spirit of the dead | Many kinds, mostly at night. Newborns’ faces were painted to turn them away. | pending speaker check |
| janecon hah-nuh-KOON | The true name | Given a month or more after birth. | pending speaker check |
| cocha KOH-chah | Oxbow lake | Spanish/Quechua. Many communities sit on one. | not Shipibo |
| mijano mee-HAH-noh | The dry-season upstream fish migration | Spanish. July–August: the abundance the year was built on. River life → | not Shipibo |
| chacra CHAH-krah | Garden plot | Spanish/Quechua. Manioc and plantain. | not Shipibo |
| maloca mah-LOH-kah | Large communal or ceremonial house | Spanish, pan-Amazonian; most retreat ceremony spaces bear it. | not Shipibo |
Why so many say “pending”
Most of these words were written down by ear — an American, a Finn, a physician — before there was a standard spelling. Two wrote healer two different ways.
We could modernise everything and look authoritative. Instead a spelling waits until a Shipibo speaker says it aloud. That work started in 2026.
The sources, and what each is worth → · Who is recording →
Sources: Ulloa 2011; field transcriptions of 1964, 1982 and 2004; Hern; a 2021 practitioner study.