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Ko·ko·pel·li

(kō′kō-pĕlē)

1. A Hopi kachina having a hunchback and an enlarged phallus and associated with fertility.

2. A figure of a flute player, often depicted as a hunchback and originally appearing in Southwestern rock art and pottery.

[Hopi kookopölö, hunchbacked Hopi kachina, humpbacked species of robber fly (later applied by non-Hopi anthropologists to images of flute players common in Southwestern rock art) : kooko-, of unknown meaning (perhaps akin to Zuni kokko, kachina) + pölö, lump, hump.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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