Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See quipu.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as quipu.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of quipu.

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  • Alternative spelling quipu, which actually may be the more common variant.

    October 16, 2007

  • Quipu or khipu (sometimes called talking knots) were recording devices used in the Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region. A quipu usually consisted of colored spun and plied thread or strings from llama or alpaca hair. It also consisted of cotton cords with numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. Quipus may have just a few or up to 2,000 cords.

    Quipu is the Spanish spelling and the most common spelling in English. Khipu (pronounced ˈkʰipu) is the word for "knot" in Cusco Quechua (the native Inca language; the kh is an aspirated k. In most Quechua varieties, the term is kipu. (Wikipedia)

    January 18, 2009