Mecate
/meˈkate/noun
A rope, cord, or lariat, especially in Mexican Spanish.
Did you know?Mecate comes from Nahuatl *mecatl*, the ordinary word for a rope or cord, showing how Indigenous words survived into modern Spanish after conquest.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Uto-Aztecan
PUA
*meka
“likely 'rope, cord' (reconstructed ancestor)”
Classical Nahuatl
Nahuatl
mecatl
“rope, cord, string”
16th Century
Spanish
mecate
“rope or cord borrowed from Nahuatl in New Spain”
Modern English
English
mecate
“a rope or lariat, especially in the American Southwest”