xitomatl

[John Sullivan]

Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
	I think we have already discussed this on the list, but here goes.
1. tomatl is a morpheme, or at least its root, "toma-" is. You can add the intransitive verbing suffix, "-hua" to it to get "tomahua".
2. the noun "xihuitl", meaning "grass, green stone, turquoise". This is cited from Fran's dictionary where she adds "It also serves as a modifier for heat, indicating intensity" (324). So we put "xihuitl" into its combining form, "xiuh", add it to "tomato" and we get "xiuhtomatl". 
	This "xiuh-" is also used in Huastecan Nahuatl to big things, so a "xiuhtlacatl" is a very big man.
John

On Jul 23, 2013, at 3:08 PM, Michael McCafferty <mmccaffe at indiana.edu> wrote:

> Quoting Susana Moraleda <susana at losrancheros.org>:
> 
>> Niltze nocniuhhuan,
>> I would like to understand, once and for all, the real ethymology of
>> the word XITOMATL. I've searched and searched, and found many
>> different (and often absurd) sources, but three are the ones that are
>> almost omnipresent.
>> 
>> XICTLI, navel
>> XITOMA, peel off
>> TOMAHUAC, fat
>> 
> 
> 
> This is a good question, Susana.
> 
> xi:ctli is not the source, as we'd have xi:ctomatl instead xi:tomatl.
> 
> Someone once told me that 'tomatl' came from toma:hua 'swell', but I don't think so.
> 
> It seems the origin is the "peel" idea, and that there is a morpheme with two allomorphs, xi:p- and xi:-, and they refer to peeling. The toma is toma/tomi 'for something to loosen up'. Sounds like people skinned these colorful xi:tomatl.
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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