piqui

Updated: May 20, 2025

Piqui means "flea"; llacta means "town, city, country, district, or territory." Was this "The Territory of the Fleas" or was it "Flea Town"? And what was its name in the days of the Incas? Was the old name abandoned because it was considered unlucky? Whatever the reason, it is a most extraordinary fact that we have here the evidences of a very large town, possibly pre-Inca, long since abandoned.

Hiram Bingham - Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru

The singer was called cuicani, and is distinguished from the composer of the song, the poet, to whom was applied the term cuicapicqui, in which compound the last member, picqui, corresponds strictly to the Greek poiaetaes, being a derivative of piqui, to make, to create. Sometimes he was also called cuicatlamantini, "skilled in song."

Daniel Garrison Brinton - Ancient Nahuatl Poetry: Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature Number VII.