What is the origin and meaning of the word Patagonia?

Ferdinand Magellan named the southern tip of South America Patagonia in 1520. The meaning of Patagonia is most likely derived from the book, The Primaleon, which was first published in 1512, and featured a wild race of people called the Patagonians.

Ferdinand Magellan & naming of patagonia

The place-name Patagonia was imposed by Fernando de Magallanes himself, the most recent “discoverer” of the land that forms the southern point or end of South America.

READ: Where/what is “La Patagonia”?

Some researchers and academics have questioned if Magellan was actually responsible for the naming of Patagonia. 

However, most historians do not doubt the naming of Patagonia originated from the mouth of the explorer himself, Ferdinand Magellan named the original inhabitants of the southern regions of Argentina and Chile as patagónes.

What is controversial and has been debated for over a hundred years is what exactly does the word Patagonia mean, and where did Magellan come up with this term. The rest of this article will attempt to unravel the mystery of the Patagonian origin.

Patagonia: The land of the giants

On March 31, 1520, Fernando de Magallanes and his fleet of five ships reached a bay off the Atlantic, which they named San Julián Bay or Puerto San Julián in present-day southern Argentina. Due to bad weather and with winter approaching, Magellan decided to stay until spring.

On May 19th, 1520, Magellan’s chronicler and traveling companion, Antonio Pigafetta wrote in his diary:

“so tall was this man that we came up to the level of his waist-belt,” and “he was gigantic in stature and practically naked.” 

Three years after his departure, Pigafetta returned to the Republic of Venice. He related his experiences in the Report on the First Voyage Around the World: 

“Magellan gave food and water to the Patagonian, then made a gift of some trinkets, such as a steel mirror. The native, who did not know what kind of tool this was, and saw his reflection for the first time leapt back in shock, toppling over four of the sailors who were watching him.”

In this ‘strictly accurate account,’ Pigafetta ‘witnessed’:

“Hogs with navels on their haunches, clawless birds whose hens laid eggs on the back of their mates, and others still, resembling tongueless pelicans with beaks like spoons. He wrote of having seen a misbegotten creature with the head and ears of a mule, a camel’s body, the legs of a deer and the whinny of a horse.”  

Today, many books teach the place-name origin of Patagonia, comes from Megallan’s account, as transcribed by his chronicler, Pigafetta, to describe the Patagonian natives as giants.

However, the Report on the First Voyage Around the World is nothing more than a fantasy novel, and basing scientific facts from this report only leads to confusion…..as has been the case since it’s the first publication in the early 1520s.

The Patagonian Giants are real……but only in novels, such as The First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522): An Account of Magellan's Expedition by Antonio Pigafetta.

patagón & big feet

Contrary to popular belief, patagón does NOT mean big feet or bigfoot.

Scholars have analyzed the possible origin of pata, followed by the morpheme gon, in Portuguese, Castilian, Italian, plus Latin, which is the mother tongue of the first three languages and have found zero relationships or connections to big feet.

• Pata does indeed mean foot

• However, gon has mystified linguistic researchers as the morpheme gon doesn’t mean big or fit into any logical sequence with pata.

Some scholars believe that the Magellan expedition referenced warped or deformed feet as the name for patagones, which was referring to their shoes made out of guanaco skin, which was an unusual shape for shoes, at least for members of Magellan's crew. However, this explanation has never been verified, as Pigafetta’s account rarely touched on such trivial matters, such as the specific nature of the Patagones shoes.

It should also be noted that the first year the term patagón referenced big feet in print was 1552, over 30 years after the Magellan expedition. Many scholars believe that the confusion was created during this time, as much was written……. mostly by historians.

Patagonian & a novel of chivalry: Primaleón

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, which is more commonly known as Don Quixote, the famous book of chivalry was first published in 1605. However, during the time of Magellan, the most famous book of chivalry was El Primaleón, which predates Quixote by nearly a century.

The Primaleon (El Primaleón), also called the Second Book of Emperor Palmerín, is the continuation of the romance of chivalry novel, Palmerín de Olivia, and was published in 1512.

Few books during this era were as popular or illustrious as The Primaleón. The immediate success resulted in publications translated into numerous languages, including Italian, French, and English, with the original in Spanish.

In the book El Primaleón, the hero and son of the Knight Palmerín de Oliva, lands on an island inhabited by monstrous beings, with human bodies, large ears, sharp, pointed teeth, feet like a deer and the face of a dog, dressed in animal hides and living off raw meat. The hero in the novel, Primaleón, in chapter 133 faces a monster creature named Patagon.

Entire doctoral dissertations have been written about the comparisons between El Primaleón and its similarities to Antonio Pigafetta’s report. However, one doesn’t need a PhD to see the ridiculous similarities between the two books……of fiction.

Francis Drake & pentagons

Ferdinand Magellan set sail for the ‘first’ circumnavigation of the world during his famous exploration in 1519. 

The second circumnavigation of the world was undertaken by Francis Drake or El Draque to the Spaniards, between 1577 and 1580, which included a stop in Patagonia, before him being knighted by Queen Elizabeth I, in 1581.

The only written log in existence from this expedition was from the chaplain Francis Fletcher, which was first published in 1628 under the title, The World Encompassed. This logbook was written incomplete, and questions remain about the originality of the manuscript.

Francis Drake’s logbook disappeared, which was written and illustrated by Drake himself, along with his cousin, John Drake.

From chaplain Francis Fletcher’s diary, The World Encompassed:

“Magellane was not altogether deceived, in naming of them Giant... and thereupon might presume the more boldly to lie: the name Pentagones, five cubits, (7 foot and half) describing the full height”

As noted, from the suspect logbook, which was first published nearly 50 years after the circumnavigation. Large feet, or bigfoot, is not mentioned, primarily because Patagonia never meant big feet. 

The term Pentagon, as the origin of Patagonia, is also erroneous, since maps that predate the publication of Fletcher’s logbook are labeled as “Tierra de Patagones.” Also, pre-knighted Drake, well aware of the Patagonia region, aptly failed at a play on words of Patagonia, with pentagon.

patacón & coin

In the time of Magellan, a copper coin of nominal value was known as patacón. This hypothesis postulates the term patacon originated in meaning and symbolism of “people of little value.” 

During the same period, a coin called patagón circulated in Flanders and Luxembourg. Modern historians and scholars don’t find any connection to patacón and Patagonia. Research during the 1920s looked upon the topic with the general concussion of nada  (nothing). 

Patagonians & Fueguians

During the time of Magellan and Drake, the Southern Cone was home to numerous native societies, including Alacaluf, Chonos, Tehuelches, Mapuche, Inca, Kogi, Ona, Puelche, Quechua/Aymara, and Yahgan.

After the Magellan voyage, maps depicted the far reaches of the Southern Cone as two tribes, the Patagonians and Fueguians.

1. Fueguians

   • The name-place Tierra del Fuego (Fueguians) belongs to the archipelago of islands lying south of the Straight of Magellan and north of Cape Horn.

2. Patagonians

   • Patagonia (Patagonians) represents the southern end of mainland South America, terminating at Cape Froward, in the Straight of Magellan.

For several centuries, natives, regardless of what specific society they belonged to were referred to generically as Patagonians or Fueguians, depending on what side of the straight they were on.

This had lead to much confusion today, since societies have been living in Patagonia for over 13,000 years, and much history has been lost or confused as a result.

Native languages & meanings of patagonia

Straight of Magellan, Useless Bay, Beagle Channel, Drake Passage, Mount Darwin, Thieves Bay, Port famine, and Land of Fire are all names of famous places in Patagonia and were all named by European discoverers.

Some academics believe the Spaniards heard the name Patagonia from the natives and thus the true origin is rooted in an ancient Native American language(s):

• Quichua language - The word Patagonia means country of the hills.

• Quichua (another interpretation) - The land of the Foot or end that trembles

• Pampa Language - According to this interpretation, patagón would mean the one that arrives destroyed and Patagonia translates as broken earth, torn by the violent seismic shocks that occurred in remote antiquity

• Tehuelche language - The land of terraces

• Mapuche language (Mapudungun) - Derived from Patacón and means immense, without limits 

Occam's Razor, put simply, states: the simplest solution is almost always the best. Doctoral dissertations generally research novel concepts, to further understand areas that are lacking in academic studies, or to further an agenda. 

Patagonia originating from the native tongues in the land of Patagón makes for a good story, and certainly one more interesting than that of a monster humanoid-creature from a 16th-century Spanish novel.   

However, the paucity of information lends no credibility to these indigenous origins, as researchers attempt to make connections that are nearly as fantastical as the tales of Pigafetta.

ferdinand magellan killed in 1521

In April of 1521, Fernando de Magallanes was killed by a poison arrow on the island of Mactan in what is now the Philippines, 13 months after reaching the coast of Argentine’s Patagonia.

Ferdinand Magellan is credited with the naming of Patagonia since he captained the expedition. However, Antonio Pigafetta’s fantastical account is ultimately responsible for the name-place and the vast majority of myths that have surrounded La Patagonia……even to this day.

What is Ferdinand Magellan’s name?

Fernão de Magalhães was a Portuguese explorer serving under the Spanish crown and has different names, depending on your language:

• Portuguese = Fernão de Magalhães

• Spanish = Fernando de Magallanes or Hernando de Magallanes

• English = Ferdinand Magellan

terra incógnita

Terra Incognita & Terra Nullius: Maps, Deception, and Modern Imperialism by Dr. Alexander Zukas:

Stories of giants, cannibals, savages, and barbarians were commonplace during this period, as this provided ‘justification’ of taking over the land and giving it the proper name.

Final Thought

While much controversy and theories exist to the true origin of La Patagonia, Occam's Razor points us to one obvious conclusion. In 1520, Magellan and Pigafetta called the natives of the ‘newly-discovered’ land, Patagonians, as a reference from the most famous adventure novel of the day.

Jesse is Director of Pedal Chile and lives in Chile’s Patagonia (most of the year). Jesse has a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance and enjoys riding single-track down the active volcano near Pucón. I’m also an avid reader and blogger for Pedal Chile.

More articles from Pedal Chile

• Where exactly is Patagonia?

• What language do they speak in “La Patagonia”?

• What is the national drink of Chile? And yes, it has pineapple ice-cream

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