section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, "the four suyu ". In Quechua, tawa is four and -ntin is a suffix naming a group, so that a tawantin is a quartet, a group of four things taken together, in this case the four suyu ("regions" or "provinces") whose corners met at the capital. The four suyu were: Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east; the Amazon jungle), Qullasuyu (south) and Kuntisuyu (west). The name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu.
  
  While the term Inka nowadays is translated as "ruler" or "lord" in Quechua, this term does not simply refer to the "King" of the Tawantinsuyu or Sapa Inca but also to the Inca nobles, and some theorize its meaning could be broader. In that sense, the Inca nobles were a small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000, but ruling a population of around 10 million people.
  
  When the Spanish arrived in the Empire of the Incas, they gave the name "Peru" to what the natives knew as Tawantinsuyu. The name "Inca Empire" (Imperio de los Incas) originated from the Chronicles of the 16th Century.