Popoloca
/ˌpoʊ.pəˈloʊ.kə/noun
A term used for a group of Indigenous languages of Mexico, especially those in the Oto-Manguean family.
Did you know?In colonial Mexico, Spanish speakers applied popoloca as a pejorative label for people whose speech they did not understand, so the word’s history is tied to power, exclusion, and linguistic prejudice rather than any mystical root.
Etymological Timeline
Colonial Spanish
Spanish
popoloca
“a pejorative term for someone speaking an unintelligible language; by extension, a named Indigenous group or language”
16th Century
Spanish
popoloca
“used in New Spain as an insult meaning 'barbarous' or 'incomprehensible'”
Nahuatl contact era
Nahuatl/Spanish contact
popoloca
“an exonym applied to peoples whose speech was not understood by Nahuatl or Spanish speakers”
Modern English
English
Popoloca
“the name of a cluster of Indigenous languages of central Mexico”