English Explanatory Dictionary

Galapagos Islands

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. An archipelago off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, famed for their influence on Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Word forms

Galapagos Islands Galápagos Islands Galapagos Galápagos Galapago Islands

Etymology

From Spanish islas Galápagos, first attested as New Latin insulae de los galopegos (“islands of the turtles”) in Abraham Ortelius's 1570 atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, from a variant spelling of Spanish galápago (“turtle”), from Paleo-Hispanic. Cf. Catalan calàpet (“toad”) and Portuguese cágado (“turtle”).

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