Note 73 — Chapter V

Uira means “grease”, and Ccocha, “a lake”. The word for the sea is Mama-ccocha. Montesinos says that Uira, in the word Uiracocha, was a corruption of Pirua, meaning all things united together. Pirua literally means a “granary”. Garcilasso de la Vega pointed out that Uira-ccocha would mean a “Sea of grease”, not “Foam of the Sea”: the genitive always being placed first. Ccochap-uira would be “Foam of the sea”.

But the Ynca Garcilasso, though he points out the errors of other writers, does not explain the meaning of the word himself. He simply infers that it is a proper name, the original meaning of which is lost; and adds that Blas Valera says that it signified “the will and power of God”, not because that is the etymology of the component words, but because of the God-like qualities ascribed to Uira-ccocha.