Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken by Mapuche people, in Chile and Argentina. Even after the arrival of the Spaniards, ethnic groups in Argentina adopted Mapudungun, for instance Patagonians or Tehuelche. This process is named araucanization. Today, its speakers number 260,000, with 250,000 in the Central Valley of Chile and 10,000 in the Argentinian region of Patagonia.
The name of the boldo tree comes from the Mapudungun word foldo. The word "Poncho" was adopted by Spanish and many other languages. It may have come from the Mapudungun word pontro or from the Quechua word punchu.