totaʼtsi

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Hopi

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Etymology

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From Nahuatl tota'tzin (our father),[1] "used in respectful reference to the Spanish priests by their Nahuatl-speaking retainers. Clearly the Hopis had a very different impression."[2]

Noun

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totaʼtsi

  1. dictator, tyrannical or bossy person
  2. Catholic priest

References

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  1. ^ form and meaning of the Nahuatl word confirmed by John Bierhorst, A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos (1985)
  2. ^ 1998, Kenneth C. Hill, Spanish loanwords in Hopi, in The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright (edited by Jane H. Hill, P. J. Mistry, Lyle Campbell), page 22

Further reading

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  • A Concise Hopi and English Lexicon (→ISBN, 1985)