*poc-tzin ?

[William Bright]

estimados nahuatlatos; i'm interested in contact and borrowing between
nahuatl and other languages, including spanish as well as native american
tongues.

the new mexico spanish dictionary by rube'n cobos lists PUNCHE as a word
for tobacco, and i'd like to find its origin. the *diccionario de
mejicanismos* by santamari'a lists the word as meaning a kind of
"mermelada", used in puebla; this doesn't seem very helpful.

it occurs to me that PUNCHE could be from a possible nahuatl word *POC-TZIN
"little smoke", diminutive of POC-TLI "smoke". however, i can't find
*POC-TZIN in any nahuatl dictionary available to me. have any of you run
across such a word? or can you suggest any other origin for PUNCHE?

thanks and all best; bill bright

William Bright
(Editor, Language in Society; Written Language & Literacy; Oxford Studies
in Anthropological Linguistics; Native American Place-names of the United
States)
1625 Mariposa Ave.
Boulder, CO 80302
Phone 303-444-4274
Fax 303-413-0017
Email William.Bright at Colorado.Edu