Origen — Nombre Chile

The most historically documented clue comes from Pedro de Valdivia, the conquistador who founded Santiago in 1541. In his letters to King Charles V of Spain, Valdivia stated that he named the valley "Valley of the Chili," after the name of a river and a small local tribe.

En esta lengua, la palabra chilli se traduce como "donde se acaba la tierra" o "el lugar más alejado del mundo". Esta denominación coincidiría con la percepción de los pueblos del altiplano sobre el territorio situado al sur del desierto de Atacama. origen nombre chile

The (now known as the Rio Claro in the Atacama region) was a landmark. However, this just pushes the question further back: Why was the river called Chili? It likely returns to one of the indigenous theories above. This theory suggests that the name started as a local river name, then applied to the valley, then to the whole region. The most historically documented clue comes from Pedro

While no single theory has been proven 100%, the most accepted by modern Chilean historians is the ( chilli = "where the land is deep"). It acknowledges the indigenous people who lived there and accurately describes the unique geography of deep valleys and deep roots. Esta denominación coincidiría con la percepción de los

In summary: Most likely from Mapudungun ( chilli = deep place) or Aymara (where the land ends). The "cold" (Quechua) theory is possible but less supported by historical documents.

Geographically, this makes perfect sense. The coastal valleys of central Chile (the Mapuche heartland) are "deep" in two ways: they are deep green with vegetation, and they are geologically deep, as the Andes rise sharply from the Pacific trench. Some linguists suggest that the Incas, who could not conquer the Mapuche, adopted the name Chile from the very people who lived there, and the Spanish later inherited it.

Lo más probable es que la verdad sea una mezcla de estas teorías. Los cronistas coloniales, como Diego de Rosales, ya utilizaban el nombre "Chile" en el siglo XVII, validando que el topónimo ya existía a la llegada de los europeos; es decir, .