Cuitlatl; scatological intent; Simeon

[Michael McCafferty]

Dr. Karttunen's dictionary, citing Vocabulario de la Sierra 
Zacapoaxtla, Puebla, evinces the reduced cuit- for cuitla- in

cuitcotoltic 'something bobtailed, docked' (rabon)

cuitcoatl 'tapeworm' (lombriz)


Michael




Quoting Gordon Whittaker <gwhitta at gwdg.de>:

> 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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