Nahuatl Word of Interest

[Galen Brokaw]

If the word meant "vestido de luto" as David's dictionary suggests, this
would seem to make more sense. I think Mark is right, but I'm confused
by the -hua at the end rather than the -ca in the middle. It seems to me
that the -ca is the nominalizing -ca: attached to the preterite of
miqui. Of course, one wonders why they would not have simply used
miquiz- instead. But perhaps this has to do with the difference between
the vestido de luto worn by the living and the death shroud itself worn
by the dead. But then this raises interesting questions about indigenous
notions and practices and their equivalence or nonequivalence to the
Spanish notions of death and practices of mourning. In other words, is
this word a colonial neologism, and if not, what is the difference in
meaning between its pre-conquest and post-conquest use? The only thing
that I can think of with regard to the "hua" is that it is the suffix
which means "possessor of." So the word would mean "the possessor of the
deathly/mourning cloak" = vestido de luto.
So, if that is the case, then the word would break down as:

mic (pret. stem of miqui) + ca: (deverbalizing nominalizer/adverbalizer
  + tilma (from tilmahtli) + hua (possessor of)

Does that make any sense?
Galen


Mark David Morris wrote:
> Joe,
>
> I think Molina gave a vague gloss through his interest in extinguishing
> Mesoamerican culture.  It seems like he is describing the pre-colonial
> "winding sheet" often painted in funerary scenes with the deceased's
> calendar sign, name glyph or death event attached.  He and his order were
> also quite successful in that because the Franciscan habit became the
> favorite substitute burial wrap in the Central Mexican altepetl in the
> century after Molina completed his dictionary.  I think that the -ca
> before tilma is a verbal preterite, though to me it seems grammatically
> unnecessary.
>
> best,
> Mark Morris
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> La muerte tiene permiso a todo
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> MDM, PhD Candidate
> Dept. of History, Indiana Univ.
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