Definition of "quipu" []

• A record-keeping device of the Inca empire consisting of a series of variously colored strings attached to a base rope and knotted so as to encode information, used especially for accounting purposes. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Really, the word quipu scarcely enters the English language at all, unlike quinine or the edible seed quinoa, which if its current popularity continues may well end up pronounced kwiNOa in English KEENwah is preferred for the time being."
• "It's possible that the majority of English speakers who know the word quipu pronounce it "kwipu", but most of them know it only as an obscure piece of historical trivia."
• "So far as known, the quipu was the only mnemonic system in use in Peru."