Lenca

American  

[leng-kuh] / ˈlɛŋ kə /

noun

Lencas, plural Lenca plural

1. a member of an Indigenous people of El Salvador and central Honduras.

2. the language of the Lenca.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to the Lenca or their language.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Lenca
  plural
• Lencas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Lenca

First recorded in 1850–55; from Lenca, a self-designation

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Lenca Lencas

Bertha Caceres, daughter of the slain activist, said she hopes a Dutch criminal probe could reveal "the faces of those whose money enabled the attacks against the Lenca people."

From Reuters ● Jun. 28, 2022

The dam would have flooded large areas of land and cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of the indigenous Lenca people in western Honduras.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2022

Berta was involved in numerous land and water struggles alongside indigenous Lenca communities across western Honduras.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 2020

“What we are up against is a declared war on the Lenca people,” said Copinh leader Tomas Gomez, who was named as a co-defendant along with Caceres in the court documents.

From Time ● May 3, 2016

The race that inhabited this region were the Lenca Indians, often mentioned in the accounts given by the missionaries of their early expeditions into Honduras.

From The Naturalist in Nicaragua by Belt, Thomas

Her most recent cause was a major dam project, sponsored by the Honduran government with Chinese financing, that the Lencas said would ruin their ancestral waterways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2016

In many districts the Indians are known as Lencas, a generic name which includes several tribes akin to the Mayans of Guatemala.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 6 "Home, Daniel" to "Hortensius, Quintus" by Various