Manguean

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Describing the Mangue peoples of Nicaragua or the extinct and nearly extinct languages that belonged to their Oto-Manguean family
2. Relating to the Mangue ethnic group of western Nicaragua and the language family they spoke within the Oto-Manguean group
3. Of or concerning the Indigenous Mangue people of Nicaragua and the related tongues classified under the Oto-Manguean language stock

Etymology: The ethnonym behind this word is Mangue, the name of an Indigenous people of the Pacific lowlands of what is now Nicaragua, whose communities were recorded by Spanish colonists in the 1500s. "Manguean" is simply that name with the English adjective-forming suffix "-an," so it means "of the Mangue." The sense is mostly ethnic and historical rather than everyday. The more widely used sense comes from linguistics. Scholars grouped the Mangue language with Chorotega and other related languages of Mesoamerica into the Oto-Manguean family, and "Manguean" appears in that technical use, where it names a branch of the family. The origin of the Spanish name "Mangue" itself is uncertain, so the word's deeper history is best traced only as far as the people's name.