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1. A pre-Incan civilization that flourished on the northern coast of Peru from about the first to eighth centuries AD, known especially for its pottery vessels modeled into naturalistic human and animal figures.
2. A member of a people sharing the Moche culture.
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:
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.