millahcatl

Classical Nahuatl

Alternative forms

• mihlacatl
• millacatl
• mīllàcatl (Carochi)

Etymology

mīllah "place of fields" + -catl "inhabitant"

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /miːllahkatɬ/
• IPA^(key): /miːhlahkatɬ/

Noun

mīllahcatl (plural mīllahcah)

1. A farmer; peasant.
   • 1555: Alonso de Molina, Aqui comienca un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana, f. 14v.

     Aldeano. milla.tlacatl.millacatl.

   • 1555: ibid., f. 151v.

     Labrador ruſtico. millacatl.millatlacatl.milpanecatl.

   • 1640–41: Bartolomé de Alva (trans.), El animal profeta y dichoso patricida, f. 21r.

     çan itzotzomà ōhuālyetià yn iuhqui mīhlàcatl

     (he came dressed just in his rags as though he were a field hand)

   • 1645: Horacio Carochi, Arte de la lengua mexicana con la declaración de los adverbios della, f. 57r.

     De Mīllâ, que significa lugar de sementeras, se forma mīllàcatl, el labrador

     (From mīllâ, which means a place with cultivated fields, is formed mīllàcatl, farmer.)

References

• Carochi, Horacio (2001) Grammar of the Mexican Language, with an Explanation of its Adverbs (1645), trans. and ed. by James Lockhart, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pages 220–221
• Karttunen, Frances (1983) An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl, Austin: University of Texas Press, page 147
• Sell, Barry D. with Louise M. Burkhart and Elizabeth R. Wright (eds. and trans.) (2008) Nahuatl Theater, Volume 3: Spanish Golden Age Drama in Mexican Translation, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, page 181