Cuacha

[butlerpe at PURDUE.EDU]

It seems like you know quite a bit about Latin and since Spanish comes from
Latin, at least that's what I thought but I am no linguist, maybe you have
heard the term "cuacha" used in Spain?  I met a few people from Spain in Mexico
before and they had never heard the term.  But, then again, some of my best
friends are from Guanajuato and they've never heard it either.  Here is
something that just came to mind.  I don't know how politically correct
everyone is going to find this but it's part of the reality of Mexicans and
Mexican Americans alike.  The only people I have heard use this word are my
relatives, and my family all has dark skin and "el aspeto indigena."  In other
words, I think my family has a lot of Indian blood, but how much or from where
I don't know.  My friends that I mentioned from Guanajuato are blanquitas, and
their mother told me in a conversation once that she was proud that they didn't
look like "indios," and, when her slightly darker skinned daughter was brought
up, she commented on how she felt bad for her since she was more morena.  So, I
would be inclined to think "cuacha" has its roots in an indigenous language,
even if it is not nahuatl.

  Quoting Matthew Montchalin <mmontcha at OREGONVOS.NET>:

> micc2 wrote:
> |"If you have studied Classical Latin, you naturally know about stercus
> |and fimum, neither of which have the slightest similarity to the Spanish
> |'caca.'"
> |
> |However we do use the word "estierco"  for cow manure.
>
> Ah, good to learn that.  (Certo alienus vel ignarus hispanicae linguae
> sum, nimirum Hispanicam nescio.)
>
> But can you suggest an etymology for kwacha?  I am grasping at straws
> when I suggest things like Latin quatio (or its frequentative form
> quasso).  I would only observe that the consonant found in the middle
> can shift a little, as if palatalizing, perhaps even turn into ch.
>