The Spanish word 'chucha' has two distinct origins and meanings. One meaning comes from Spanish itself, where it developed from the onomatopoeic sound 'chuch' used for calling dogs. This sound led to 'chucho' meaning 'dog', and then with the feminine suffix '-a', formed 'chucha' meaning 'female dog'. The other meaning of 'chucha' meaning 'opossum' was borrowed directly from Quechua, where it had the same meaning.

A closely related and more commonly used Spanish word is 'chucho', which means 'dog' or 'mutt'. This comes from the same onomatopoeic origin of imitating the sound used to call dogs.

While there aren't direct English cognates, English speakers might find it interesting that like Spanish 'chucha/chucho', English also has some words for dogs that originated as sounds for calling them, such as 'pooch' which may have come from a sound used to call dogs.