From Mapudungun: chon (head) + chon (to fly). A sorcerer’s severed head with owl ears. The word’s true root is not anatomical. It is the sound of a secret leaving the body.
“Abuelo, this is absurd.”
His granddaughter, Luna, a linguistics student from Santiago who spoke with the sharp seseo of the capital, had come to Punta Arenas to escape a thesis she couldn’t finish. “Abuelo,” she said, blowing on her hands, “etymology is about roots. Greek étumon , ‘true sense.’ Latin chilensis . It’s academic. Cold.” etimologias chile