metate

See also: metáte

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish metate, from a Nahuan language, from Proto-Nahuan *metlatl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛˈtɑːteɪ/

Noun

metate (plural metates)

1. A flat stone with a slightly concave surface, used with another stone (a mano) for grinding maize or other grains.
   • 1985, James A. Michener, chapter V, in Texas, page 326:

         Each evening, when he returned home, he found that María he prepared some new treat, for she was a most ingenious woman, capable of transforming the poorest materials into something delicious, and he grew to love the tortillas she made so patiently, kneeling before the stone metate as she beat the boiled corn into the gray-white mixture she later baked on the flat rocks.

Translations

flat stone for grinding grains

• Highland Puebla Nahuatl: metat
• Hopi: mata
• Malayalam: അമ്മിക്കല്ല് (ml) (ammikkallŭ)
• Morelos Nahuatl: metlatl
• Navajo: tsédaashjééʼ
• Southeastern Tepehuan: mattur
• Spanish: metate (es)
• Taos: óna
• Tetelcingo Nahuatl: metlatl
• Tübatulabal: mana·l
• Zacatlán-Ahuacatlán-Tepetzintla Nahuatl: mitlatl

Esperanto

Adverb

metate

1. present adverbial passive participle of meti

Latin

Participle

mētāte

1. vocative masculine singular of mētātus

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from a Nahuan language, from Proto-Nahuan *metlatl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈtate/ [meˈt̪a.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ate
• Syllabification: me‧ta‧te

Noun

metate m (plural metates)

1. metate (a flat stone with a slightly concave surface, used with another stone (mano) for grinding maize or other grains)

Descendants

• → English: metate

See also

• molcajete

Further reading

• “metate”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28