nahual
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish nahual, from Classical Nahuatl nāhualli (“sorcerer, spirit, animal form a person may take”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /nəˈwɑːl/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: na‧hual
Noun
nahual (plural nahuals) (Mesoamerican mythology)
- An animal form which a person may take.
- She has a nahual for every day of the week.
- (Mesoamerican mythology) A person who is able to take an animal form.
- They suspected that the man was a nahual.
Derived terms
See also
Spanish
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Classical Nahuatl nāhualli (“sorcerer”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /naˈwal/ [naˈwal], /naˈɡwal/ [naˈɣ̞wal]
Audio (Costa Rica): (file) - Rhymes: -al
- Syllabification: na‧hual
Noun
nahual m (plural nahuales)
- (Central America, Mexico) sorcerer
- (Central America, Mexico) healer, witch doctor
- Synonym: curandero
- (in Mesoamerican mythology) nahual (animal form which a person may take)
- Synonym: tonal
- (in Mesoamerican mythology) nahual (person able to take animal form)
Descendants
- → English: nahual
References
- Carlos Montemayor et al. (2009) Diccionario del náhuatl en el español de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, page 93
Further reading
- “nahual”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024