momik? mimik? (Insane, crazy, or kook customer?)

[Matthew Montchalin]

Richard Haly wrote:
| I dunno. Back when I worked at Chez Panisse, we called such people Los
| Angelinos. But maybe the Nahuatlahto said something like "miquic" (a dead
| person) implying that he did not belong in this world.

Well, I quizzed him on it again today, and he said it's "mimiki" (however
you spell that in Spanish; the second vowel seems long, and seems to bear
the stress).  There is definitely an 'i' on the end, perhaps a long i.
I wonder if it is pejorative, maybe something along the lines of "idiot"
or "jerk?"  But your connecting it with the verb for dying might be a very
good lead.  How about the related (transitive) verb mictia, "to kill,
mistreat someone?"  Might it denote someone that ought to "drop dead?"

So far as I can tell, Nahuatl is one of the most amazing languages that I
have ever run into.  :)

| Where is your Nahuatl-speaking employee from?

Oh, somewheres north by northeast of Mexico City, a hundred (?) miles or
so.  Something of a vagabond spirit that has finally chosen to settle
down, and has spent the last five or six years here in Oregon.