Zapoteco

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Referring to the indigenous people native to the Oaxaca region of Mexico; relating to their native language, part of the Oto-Manguean family; associated with their cultural traditions and heritage
2. Pertaining to the ethnic group originating from southern Mexico; descriptive of their unique linguistic system within the Oto-Manguean languages; connected to the customs, arts, and history of this community
3. Denoting the people inhabiting Oaxaca known for their distinct indigenous identity; identifying their language classified under Oto-Manguean languages; related to the collective practices and legacy of this group

Etymology: The name Zapotec belongs to a people of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, and it was not coined by the Zapotec themselves. It came into Spanish from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and the Nahuatl original was "tzapotēcah", the plural of "tzapotēcatl", meaning roughly "inhabitant of the place of sapote." Sapote is the name for the sweet, soft-fleshed tropical fruits of the sapodilla family, and the Nahuatl speakers used the term to describe people living in a region where those trees grew. Spanish took the Nahuatl form and shaped it into "zapoteca," which is the source of the English "Zapotec." The spelling "zapoteco" is an alternative form, and it is the Spanish-style spelling that English writers often use for the language associated with the same people.

Synonyms: zapotec language, zapotec people