Mazatec
/ˌmæzəˈtɛk/noun
A member of an Indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico, or the Oto-Manguean language they speak.
Did you know?Mazatec is the English name for a real Indigenous people and language, and the culture became globally famous through documented mid-20th-century psilocybin healing ceremonies, not through an occult etymology.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian era
Nahuatl
mazatl
“deer”
Pre-Columbian era
Nahuatl
-tecatl
“inhabitant; person from a place”
Colonial era
Spanish
mazateco
“a Mazatec person or language term adopted into Spanish”
19th–20th Century
English
Mazatec
“English ethnonym and language name for the Indigenous people of Oaxaca”
Modern English
English
Mazatec
“the people, language, and related cultural identity”