Panocha and Panoltia

[Michael Swanton]

Sp. ‘panocha’ from Na. ‘panoltia’ seems rather
improbable. First, this would require a transitive
verb to be borrowed as a noun and a curious semantic
extension. ‘Panocha’ is also found outside of Mexico,
at least in reference to “vulva” (for example, Puerto
Rico I believe).

Rather, it seems ‘panocha’ has a good old-fashioned
Romance etymology, with cognates at least in Italian
(pannocchia) and French (panouille), which mean “ear
of corn”. According to the Italian etymological
dictionary I have at the house, ‘pannocchia’ comes
from vulgar Latin *panucula(m) referring to “a millet
spike”. With the discovery of the Americas, “millet
spike” was extended to “ear of corn”.

>>From there we can perhaps speculate that the “coarse
sugar” may have come from a corn sugar? “Sugar” then
can find an well-trodden extension into “vulva”.

Incidentally, Fr. ‘panouille’ is also used in slang as
an insult for “idiot” (“abruti”). I suspect
‘panouille’ is something of a historical word for “ear
of corn”; I’ve always heard the expression “épi de
mais’ in French. ‘Pannocchia’ however is the standard
word for “ear of corn” in Italian; I don’t believe it
is used in Italian slang.


--- Walter Koenig <amoxtli at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> A friend has asked me whether there is a connection
> between the  
> Mexican Spanish word panocha = A coarse grade of
> Mexican sugar, crude  
> reference to women's genitalia.
> and Nahuatl panoltia = to pass, convey something,
> someone from one  
> place to another.
> 
> Evidently, several scholars, including historian
> Emma Pérez, assert  
> that panocha has a Nahuatl etymology. Can anybody
> confirm or disprove  
> this?
> 
> Thanks for your help.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> 
> Walter O. Koenig
> 
> 
> > _______________________________________________
> Nahuatl mailing list
> Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl
> 



 
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