Chorotega

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An Indigenous people of Mesoamerican origin who historically lived on the Pacific side of Nicaragua and Costa Rica
2. A group of Indigenous peoples from the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica, known for their pottery and farming traditions
3. The name of an Indigenous nation of Central America whose ancestral homeland lay in the Pacific region of Nicaragua and Costa Rica

Etymology: The name belongs to an indigenous people who lived in the Pacific lowlands of what is now northwestern Nicaragua and neighboring Costa Rica, in the region around Guanacaste. Their name comes to English from Spanish colonial sources, and its own meaning is uncertain. Some scholars link it to Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, which was widely spoken as a trade language in the region, but the exact derivation has not been firmly established. The name is also used for the Chorotegan languages, a branch of the Oto-Manguean family, which includes Mangue and Chorotega. Because few records of these languages survive, much of what is known about them comes from early Spanish documents and later linguistic reconstruction.