The animal swam in the warm waters of a 245-million-year-old sea in what is now southwestern China.

English is notorious for pickpocketing words from other languages and passing them off as its own. The number of words borrowed from other European languages easily reaches the thousands. But it doesnt stop there. Over centuries of exploration and conquest, English plundered words from languages around the globe, and continues to use words from languages that have long since gone extinct. The Americas are no exception. Here are ten English words that actually originate from Indigenous American languages.Original WordOrigin LanguageEnglish WordHuanuQuechuaGuanoCharkiQuechuaJerkyPunchu (or Pontho)Quechua (or Araucanian)PonchoChiliNahuatlChiliXocolatl (xocol + atl)NahuatlChocolateXacalliNahuatlShackHunraqan (or Huracan)Mayan KicheHurricaneSicarMayanCigarBarbakoaTanoBarbecueBatataTanoPotatoIndigenous Languages of the AmericasA Quechua-Spanish dictionary published in Lima, Peru in 1604. Source: Library of CongressBefore European conquest, over 1,000 known languages were spoken in what are today the Americas. In the centuries since Columbus first set sail, many of these languages have fallen out of use, while others remain widely spoken in Indigenous communities. It is estimated that 25 million people continue to speak one of the Americas Indigenous languages today, including Quechua, spoken by over seven million people, and languages like Chocho, spoken by fewer than 1,000 people in Mexico.It goes without saying that if one lands in a new place, spots a plant or animal never seen before and says, Hey, whats that? and someone responds, Its a Blimberhopper, well, thats what it is. But how and why foreign words are adopted into other languages is not always so clear-cut.And while its perhaps no surprise to discover Indigenous words peppering Spanish, the language of the culture that ultimately conquered most of Central and South America, there are hundreds of examples of these Indigenous languages infiltrating English as well.With the caveat that etymology is not an exact science, modern linguists have theoretically traced all ten of the following English words to the Indigenous languages of the Americas.High-Altitude South American Imports From QuechuaIllustration of Manco Capac, the last Inca, in Historia general del Piru by Martin de Mura, 1616, via Getty Museum & Research CenterQuechua, or Runasimi in Quechua itself, was spoken long before the Inca empire came to rule over present-day Peru and parts of Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. However, it was designated the official language of the empire (which, despite its strength and size, lasted just shy of 100 years), and its continued use was encouraged by Spanish colonizers through the mid-18th century. Today it is the most common Indigenous language family in South America and remains an official language in both Peru and Bolivia.Quechua is an agglutinative language. Instead of using long strings of separate words, it attaches suffix after suffix to a core root word. A single word in Quechua can express what takes an entire sentence in English.1. GuanoEnglish loves a good euphemism and often employs nicer sounding words for objectively gross things, so its no surprise English has a special word for seabird and bat excrement used for fertilizer: guano. What may be a surprise is that guano was actually borrowed from Quechua by the Spanish colonizers and ultimately adopted by the English as well.Huanu, the Quechua word for dung, was used to refer to the excrement-derived fertilizer from seabirds that populated the coast of what is today Peru and was highly prized and protected by the Incas.2. PonchoAll-Toqapu Tunic, Inca, 1450-1540. Source: Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington D.C.Given the rain, cold weather, and obvious need for wearable, water-resistant wraps in England and other parts of Europe, its a bit shocking that English had no word for such a garment and had to adopt someone elses.There are two main theories regarding the etymology of the word poncho, but both take us to South America, the birthplace of everyones favorite wearable blanket.Some etymologists trace poncho back to the Quechua word punchu, used for a woven blanket-style garment with an opening in the middle for the wearers head. Archaeologists have found evidence of woven ponchos in the Andes dating back thousands of years. Others believe the word comes from the Araucanian word pontho, meaning woolen fabric, used by the Mapuche in what is today Chile.3. JerkyWhat could be more American than beef jerky, a stick of dried meat you carry with you as you round up cattle on the prairie?Not only was the method of drying meat to create what we know today as jerky originally learned from the Incas, but the word itself also came from their language too. Charki is a Quechua word meaning dried flesh, and this simple method of preserving llama and alpaca meat took advantage of the regions mountain climate. Meat was salted and left to dry in the hot sun during the day and then frozen in the cold nights.Charki became charqui in Spanish and ultimately Anglicized as jerky.Culinary Staples Borrowed From NahuatlTribute roll from the Codex Mendoza, documenting tributes paid by towns conquered by the Aztec Empire, c. 1541. Source: Codex Mendoza, Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e HistoriaBefore the Spanish conquest, the people of the Aztec Empire spoke Nahuatl, a language, in various forms, still spoken by over a million people in what is today Central Mexico. Most linguists studying the language believe it actually originated in what is the present-day southwestern United States and spread south. So perhaps its northward trajectory into English is just a return to its roots?Like Quechua, Nahuatl compounds words, but it takes it a step further through polysynthesis. Instead of combining words in a sentence, Nahuatl glues nouns, verbs, adverbs, and pronouns into a single word-sentence.4. ChiliA hearty bowl of chili on a cold winters day is so delicious you probably never stopped to consider where the name came from.Chili is taken directly from the Nahuatl word chili, used for what we now call peppers. Some linguists like to specify that chili specifically referred to hot peppers, but as thats the only type of the fruit native to the Americas, its rather redundant, akin to saying pepper peppers.Though the exact origins of chili are unclear, it appears to have evolved from a variety of stews being consumed in what is now Mexico and Texas in the 18th and 19th centuries, in which chilis, often powdered, were the key ingredient. Todays chili often lacks the heat and spice that inspired its name, so one would be forgiven for not making the connection.5. ChocolateImage illustrating the ritual drinking of chocolate, Codex Borgia, c. 1500. Source: British Museum, LondonWhen one thinks of Mexican food, chocolate may not necessarily be the first thing that comes to mind. However, present-day Mexico is where Spanish conquistadors first encountered the delicious treat that soon spread around the world. The chocolatey sweets we consume today are dramatically different from the cold, bitter spiced cocoa beverage the conquistadors discovered Montezuma enjoying, but though the food has evolved, the name has remained more or less the same.Xocol means bitter in Nahuatl, and atl means water or drink, so the name is a literal description of what the Aztecs were consuming at the time. The word xocolatl may look quite different from chocolate, but when you factor in the way the letter x is pronounced in Nahuatl, a sound similar to the English sh, its not such a stretch to see how xocolatl transformed into chocolate over the centuries.6. ShackMuch like the object in question, this word origin explanation is a little shaky but still worth exploring. The first use of the word shack to describe a rickety hut is dated to the late 19th century in American English. However, a similar word was being used in Mexican Spanish, jacal, derived from the Nahuatl word for wooden hut: xacalli. We already know the Nahuatl x sound is similar to the English sh, and the Spanish j is pronounced as a guttural h sound, so its quite possible shack is an Anglicization of one or both of these words.The Many Languages of the MayaImages from the Dresden Codex, one of only four Mayan manuscripts still in existence, c. 1250. Source: Library of CongressMany different languages, dozens of which are still spoken today primarily in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, were spoken within the Maya civilization, which itself comprised various cultures and peoples living in Mesoamerica over a period of thousands of years. Mayan is the widely used umbrella term for all of the languages originating in this region and civilization, which include Kiche, Yucatec, and Mam, just to name a few.Though the decline of the Mayan civilization predated the arrival of the Spanish by several hundred years, smaller empires and cities were still thriving when the conquistadors arrived in the Yucatan, and loan words from their languages were readily adopted into Spanish and English.One of the defining features of Mayan phonetics is glottalized consonants (written with an apostrophe, like k, t, or p). To make these sounds, you briefly close your vocal cords (the glottis) and build up air pressure behind them, creating a sharp, popping pop sound when released.7. HurricaneIf you live on the East Coast of the United States, you know when hurricane season is, but between boarding up the windows and loading up sandbags, the origin of the word is probably the last thing on your mind. Not only is the word hurricane borrowed from the Maya, but it was also one of their gods.Hunraqan, one-legged in Mayan Kiche, or Huracan, was the god of wind, storms, and fire. When angered, he unleashed the violent storms the region is famous for, and they were named in his honor.The Tano people of the Caribbean also had a goddess who conjured up wild storms, or juracan, leading etymologists to suggest one culture adopted the word from the other. Hurricanes didnt exist where the Spanish had come from, so they adopted the Indigenous word, which was ultimately Anglicized as hurricane.8. CigarRelief featuring a Mayan priest or god smoking a cigar, Palenque, c. AD 600. Source: National GeographicWith angry gods unleashing punishing winds and torrential rains, the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica no doubt needed to relax, perhaps with the aid of one of the Americas most famous native plants, tobacco.Tobacco was used for thousands of years throughout the Americas before the conquest. In Mayan civilization, it was used as an offering to the gods as well as medicinally and recreationally.While evidence of tobacco pipes and flasks in the pre-Columbian Americas has been discovered, the Maya were also documented to have rolled tobacco leaves for smoking and had a word for itsicar. This word was adopted by the Spanish as cigarro and ultimately by English speakers as cigar. In fact, some of the most expensive cigars available today are part of a collection of 600-year-old Mayan sicars discovered in Guatemala in 2012, which you can claim as your own for just a half million U.S. dollars!Caribbean Encounters and the Legacy of the Tano LanguageColumbuss first encounter with the Tano, in Christopher Columbus arrives in America by Johann Theodor de Bry, 1594, via Rijksmuseum, AmsterdamInca, Aztec, and Maya are perhaps the big three civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas, but numerous smaller or more dispersed Indigenous groups and tribes thrived in the region before the conquest, and their languages were also ripe for the picking, particularly the earliest group to be encountered by Columbus, the Tano.The Tano were a subset of the Arawak Indigenous peoples who occupied the Caribbean island known today as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. Unfortunately, the Tano were exploited to the point of near extinction by Columbus and his men within just a few decades. Yet their influence remains in some of our most everyday items. You can thank the Tano for hot summer days spent swinging lazily in a hammock and even your favorite summer cookout tradition.Tano grammar and culture revolved around Cem, a word that simultaneously meant a deity, an ancestor spirit, and the physical object or carving through which that spirit was channeled. Communication with the cem occurred through ceremonial songs called aretos, which functioned as spoken oral histories, passing down laws, genealogies, and myths across generations.9. Barbecue Given the many millennia that humans have been cooking meat over fires, if one guesses the origin of the word barbecue, it would likely seem much older than it is. When the first Europeans stumbled upon the island of Hispaniola, they discovered the Indigenous inhabitants roasting meat in a unique way: on a rack of green wood over a fire. The word used for this wooden rack was barbakoa, though it was not specific to cooking; it was also the word used for the wooden racks they would sleep on.The Spanish conquistadors adopted both the word and the cooking style, lumped them together as one, and spread it throughout the Americas. The meats used and precise cooking methods differed depending on time and place, but the word for roasting meat on a rack over a fire remained more or less the same: barbacoa in Spanish and, ultimately, barbeque in English.10. PotatoIllustration of a Tano man in a hammock, from Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra firme del mar ocano by Gonzalo Fernndez de Oviedo y Valds, 1851, via Biodiversity LibraryPotatoes are known to have originated in what is today Peru, so why is the English word for them derived from an Indigenous Caribbean language?The first potato to reach Europe was what we now call sweet potato, which the natives of Haiti called batata and is actually unrelated to the many varieties of potato originating in Peru. When Peruvian potatoes made their way to Europe a few years later, they were similar enough in cultivation (both grow underground) and appearance that Europeans simply used the name they already had for starchy tubers. The Tano batata became patata in European Spanish and ultimately potato in English.In South America, potatoes were and continue to be called papas, the Quechua word for this native species, while the sweet potato is called camote in Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and several other countries, a word that derives from Nahuatl.

From the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt led the United States through the war. With victory in sight after the successful D-Day landings in June 1944, the ailing president died on April 12, 1945, leaving Vice President Harry Truman the task of bringing the war to an end. While Allied forces secured victory in Europe over Nazi Germany less than a month into his presidency, Truman was still faced with determining how to end Japanese resistance in the Pacific. Trumans desire to bring about a quick Japanese surrender to avoid further casualties encouraged him to make the fateful decision to deploy atomic bombs.Early Life and FamilyTruman campaign button, 1949. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionHarry S. Truman was born into a farming family on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. As the oldest of three siblings, Truman was encouraged to help on the family farm, but after graduating high school in 1901, the ambitious man left for Kansas City to work as a bank clerk. Just five years later, Trumans life permanently changed when his father passed away. Truman quickly returned home to take over management of his fathers affairs.Shortly before returning to the family farm, the future president enlisted in the Missouri National Guard as an artilleryman and served from 1905 to 1911. When the United States formally entered World War I, Truman volunteered for service in France. Before leaving, he agreed to marry a childhood friend, Elizabeth (Bess) Wallace. The couple were married in 1919 and had a daughter named Margaret in 1924.World War I ArtillerymanTruman campaign poster illustrating his service in WWI, date unknown. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionDespite disapproval from his future wife and being too old for the draft at 33 years old, Truman was eager to return to the Army as an artilleryman. In 1917, Truman was appointed a lieutenant in the Missouri National Guard, in one of six batteries in the 35th Divisions 129th Field Artillery Regiment.After arriving in France, Truman received training at the 2nd Corps Field Artillery School, in Chatillon-sur-Seine, and was promoted to captain upon his return to his unit. Now in command of his own battery, Truman was admittedly fearful when faced with the challenge of turning around the 200-man unit with a reputation for being undisciplined, many of whom were presently punished for drunk and disorderly behavior. Truman responded to this disrespect with harsh discipline, demoting many of his subordinates. However, he soon won the respect of his men by paying attention to them and looking after their needs.Trumans battery was first tested in combat in 1918 near the Vosges Mountains. While Trumans soldiers initially overwhelmed the enemy with a bombardment of artillery shells, the battery began to fall apart when faced with enemy counterfire. Truman, unfazed, rallied his men to return to the guns. The unit retained its cohesion throughout the rest of the war, and the captain and his men contributed to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive by providing fire support to a tank brigade commander by the future World War II hero George S. Patton. During the action, Truman defied orders not to fire outside his designated sector by targeting and destroying an enemy battery on his left flank. Once an unruly bunch, Truman turned his battery into a capable combat unit through unbending discipline, compassion, and bravery.Early Political CareerRending of Truman and Roosevelt together by George Tames, 1944. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionWithout his service during the Great War, Truman may never have entered politics. During World War I, Truman became friends with Jim Pendergast, a soldier in an adjacent artillery battery. Following return from combat, Pendergasts father, a prominent Democratic party boss in Kansas City, encouraged Truman to pursue a career in politics. Persuaded of Trumans loyalty, leadership, and success through hardship, Pendergast nominated the former artillery captain as a district judge in Jackson County, Mississippi. Truman won the seat with support from nearly one thousand local veterans who served alongside him in Europe.With help from his network of veterans, Truman soon rose from district to presiding judge of the county. With the backing of the Pendergast machine, Truman ran for the Senate in 1934 and won the seat by 40,000 votes. As a first-term Missouri senator, Truman served on various committees to further advocate for his fellow veterans and was also involved in regulation of the aviation and railroad industries. In 1940 he was reelected to the Senate for a second term.During his second term, the Missouri senator was appointed to chair the Truman Committee, an influential body to examine government spending during World War II. His diligence in performing his duties won him a reputation for honesty and transparency by exposing widespread fraud and waste. To avoid causing too much embarrassment to President Roosevelt, he often issued preemptive notifications to federal agencies to correct issues before formal rectifications were necessary.Vice PresidentPainting of Truman with Allied leaders by William H. Johnson, 1945. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionAlthough an experienced and respected senator, Trumans term as vice president was remarkably short. President Roosevelt chose Truman as his running mate in the 1944 election, in which he won an unprecedented fourth term with 53% of the national popular vote. Roosevelts health had been in decline, and he passed away on April 12, 1945, a mere 82 days into his new term. Roosevelts death shocked the entire nation, including Vice President Truman.Although Trumans life and political experiences would help him enormously in office, he was largely unprepared to assume the role of president of the United States. As vice president, Truman met with Roosevelt only twice before his death, and the Missourian was uninformed of the administrations wartime plans and domestic initiatives. After being officially sworn in, Truman asked for the public to pray for him. While notably lacking in foreign policy experience, President Truman applied his experiences in World War I to inform the crucial decisions that he had to make in the final months of World War II.Atomic BombsFirst atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 1945. Source: Library of CongressGermanys unconditional surrender, commemorated in early May as Victory in Europe Day, occurred less than one month after Truman assumed presidential responsibilities. Two months later, Truman traveled to Soviet-occupied Potsdam in Germany to meet with Allied leaders Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill to determine the fate of Germany following the war. Although differences in global outlook between Truman and Stalin would sow the seeds for the Cold War, all three leaders were eager to avoid the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles.At Potsdam, Truman received word from researchers and scientists in New Mexico that the Manhattan Project successfully tested the atomic bomb. Unaware of Americas devastating capabilities, Japan refused Trumans ultimatum to agree to unconditional surrender or face devastation. Armed with assessments from military advisors that nearly half a million American troops may be killed upon invasion of the Japanese homeland, Truman decided to employ the new weapons.On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the same fate overwhelmed the city of Nagasaki. Altogether, over 100,000 Japanese citizens perished. This decision, while controversial in hindsight, was likely motivated by Trumans first-hand experiences observing the devastation of World War I battlefields. The new president was willing to do whatever it took to save more American lives. Facing Soviet intervention and the threat of further nuclear bombings, Japan surrendered to the Allies aboard the USS Missouri on August 14, 1945, ending the deadliest conflict in world history.Building the PeaceTrumans Fair Deal campaign button, 1948. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionAfter World War II, Truman was concerned about the spread of communism. Although Churchill had lost office as British prime minister, in March 1946 Truman invited Churchill to Fulton College at his home state of Missouri, where Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech warning of communist expansion in Europe. In 1947, Truman formulated the Truman Doctrine, a foreign policy statement that announced the United States intention to counter communism wherever it appeared, namely in vulnerable countries like Turkey and Greece.In addition to his namesake doctrine, Trumans presidency is marked by his support for reconstruction in postwar Europe with the Marshall Plan. Formally known as the Economic Recovery Act of 1948, the Marshall Plan enhanced the recovery of Western Europe through over $13 billion in American financial support. While Marshall Aid was also offered to Eastern European countries under Soviet control such as Poland and Hungary, all of these countries came under Soviet pressure to reject American help. This marked a further step towards the formalization of the Cold War that plagued the second half of the 20th century.After unexpectedly winning reelection in 1948, Truman focused on domestic issues by announcing his Fair Deal, a package of initiatives around public housing, civil rights, education, and health insurance. Truman, however, did not ignore American influence globally. He was involved in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and supported South Korea during the Korean War.LegacyNational Portrait Gallery painting of Harry Truman by Guy Rowe, date unknown. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionTrumans second term was marked by failure to win a clear victory in the Korean War, his sacking of the popular General Douglas MacArthur, a hostile Republican Congress that blocked most of his domestic policy agenda, and approval ratings as low as 22%. Although Truman was eligible to run for reelection, he decided not to seek another term in 1952. Over time, the country began to view the unpopular president more favorably. As a common and humble man who volunteered to serve in World War I, Trumans legacy as a hardworking judge, senator, vice president, and advocate for veterans led many Americans to understand how Truman was unintentionally pushed into presidency at a time when the country needed a steadfast, capable, and transparent leader.Today, Truman is fondly remembered for desegregating the United States military and his willingness to appoint African Americans to prominent positions in government. A believer of American wellbeing at home and influence abroad, Trumans decision to deploy atomic bombs against Japan, which led to a nuclear arms race between the United States and Soviet Union, remains one of the only significant stains on his resume. However, Trumans rationale can be easily understood based on his experiences on the battlefields of the Great War.

Getting my hands on a PlayStation 2 back in 2001 was supremely important for two major reasons. The first of which was to make sure I was able to play Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and the second was to be able to play all the amazing JRPGs that I knew were on the horizon.

Possibly more than any other genre of game, fighting games are about building and improving upon what came before. Its not just knowing your roots, important as that is, but understanding how different games disparate elements come together into new and interesting wholes. Because the genre has been around for so long and had so many games, not every fighting game that contributed a major ingredient to the proverbial stew gets full credit for it.

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