Solimões River

Solimões (Portuguese pronunciation: [soliˈmõjs]) is the name often given to upper stretches of the Amazon River from its confluence with the Rio Negro upstream to the border of Brazil and Peru.

Further upstream from the border, the name of the river seems to depend on the speaker. Brazilians may either continue to call it the Solimões or refer to it as the Rio Marañón—a name which Peruvians usually only apply further upstream, before the Marañón and the Ucayali join to create what they, and most of the countries in the world (excluding Brazil), call the Amazon river.

A nation of aboriginies, called Soriman corrupted into Solimao and Soliemoens, imparts the name to this river and region.^{[Note 1]}

Notes

^ The oft repeated claim that the name of the river is derived from a poison solimum used by the tribe "Yurimáguas"(Jurimaguas or Urimagues in Portuguese) living along the shore is probably a mis-transliteration of Solanum, ala Solanum nigrum, the Black Nightshade, a flowering plant which contains toxic alkaloids including the muscle relaxant curare. That this word could have been so transmogrified as to become Solimões seems unlikely.

External links

Pacific Island Travel's Description
Amazon, River, Peru and Brazil at Bartlby.com

04°38′09″S 70°15′57″W / 4.63583°S 70.26583°W / -4.63583; -70.26583

This Brazil location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] The oft repeated claim that the name of the river is derived from a poison solimum used by the tribe "Yurimáguas"(Jurimaguas or Urimagues in Portuguese) living along the shore is probably a mis-transliteration of Solanum, ala Solanum nigrum, the Black Nightshade, a flowering plant which contains toxic alkaloids including the muscle relaxant curare. That this word could have been so transmogrified as to become Solimões seems unlikely.

[Note 1]