Zapotec
/ˌzæpəˈtɛk/noun
A member of an Indigenous people of southern Mexico, or the language they speak.
Did you know?Zapotec is an exonym borrowed from Nahuatl, and many scholars connect it to the place name Zaachila/Zapotecan self-designations, showing how powerful names can survive even when outsiders rename a people.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian
Zapotecan
Bëne Zaa / Bènizàa
“Self-designations often glossed as "people of the clouds" or "cloud people" in later interpretations”
Pre-Columbian
Nahuatl
tzapotēcah
“The Zapotec people; an ethnonym used by Nahuatl speakers”
16th Century
Spanish
zapoteca / zapoteco
“A Zapotec person or thing, borrowed from Nahuatl into colonial Spanish”
18th-19th Century
English
Zapotec
“A member of the Indigenous people of Oaxaca, or their language”
Modern English
English
Zapotec
“An Indigenous people and language of southern Mexico”