gallinazo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of several American vultures, especially the black vulture or turkey vulture

   A flock of gallinazos circled above the carcass on the plain.

2. 2
   adj

   archaeology: relating to an ancient pre-Inca culture of the Viru Valley in northern Peru

   The museum displayed a Gallinazo vessel decorated with negative-painted designs.

Borrowed from Spanish gallinazo, a name for a vulture, from gallina, 'hen,' plus the augmentative suffix -azo. Archaeologists later used the same regional name for the Gallinazo or Viru culture of northern Peru.

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