Cuitlatl; scatological intent; Simeon

[Gordon Whittaker]

Dear Joe,

Thanks a lot for these very useful data on cuitlatl. It looks like there
is no trace here of any of the secondary meanings in Simeon that I was
inquiring about, that is, no 'llaga, tumor, abceso'. Or are you aware of
such usages outside of the CF and Molina? I'm wondering if Olmos has
something I've overlooked. I had noticed that Uto-Aztecan suggests an
original meaning along the lines of 'excrement' and the like.

I fully agree with you about the lack of a scatological or prurient intent
in the use of cuitlatl and hadn't noticed that there had been any
"giggles" or "sophomore humor" from any of the previous contributors on
the subject of cuitla-. You are surely right that we Westerners tend to be
(often far) more sensitive about secretions than the Aztecs were (although
they were more sensitive about other things than we might be; see, for
example, what they have to say in the Florentine Codex about the
Cuexteca). Even so, I think 'Owner of Excrement' as the intended meaning
of Cuitlahua is, as I wrote earlier, extraordinarily unlikely -- not
because it might be cause for giggles but because it makes no more sense
than 'Owner of Mucus' or 'Owner of Sweat', at least at our present state
of knowledge.

So, I gather we will not be able to solve the names we have been
discussing (Cuitlahua and Cuitlahuac), which will probably remain
unetymologizable. Thanks for shedding light, though, on cuitlatl's range
of reference. Much appreciated!

Best,
Gordon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gordon Whittaker
Professor
Linguistische Anthropologie und Altamerikanistik
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel./fax (priv.): ++49-5594-89333
tel. (office): ++49-551-394188
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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