Tupi

American  

[too-pee, too-pee] / tuˈpi, ˈtu pi /

Or Tupí

noun

plural

Tupis,

plural

Tupi

1. a member of any of several related Indian peoples living in the valleys of various Brazilian rivers, especially the Amazon.

2. the language that was spoken in northern Brazil by the Tupi Indians, now extinct but formerly used as a lingua franca in Brazil during the 16th to 19th centuries.

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Tupi British  

/ tuːˈpiː /

noun

1. a member of a South American Indian people of Brazil and Paraguay

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Tupi-Guarani family

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Other Word Forms

• Tupian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Tupi

First recorded in 1845–50

Example Sentences

The carnauba palm's nickname in the Tupi indigenous language is the tree of thorns.

From BBC

Later that week, in Peruíbe, a town whose name means “river of sharks” in the Indigenous Tupi language, I meet a man who’s searching for mako to barbeque that day.

From National Geographic

The bird’s name comes from the Tupi Indian language of Brazil and means “devil bird.”

From New York Times

Jesuit priests went as far as creating Nheengatu, a language based on the Tupi Indigenous language adapted with Portuguese words and grammar.

From Seattle Times

But the rest of the year plants here compete in shades of gray and white—caatinga means “white forest” in the Indigenous Tupi language.

From Science Magazine