chinampa

American

[chi-nam-puh] / tʃɪˈnæm pə /

noun

(in Mesoamerica) a long and narrow floating field on a shallow lake bed, artificially built up by layering soil, sediment, and decaying vegetation and used, especially by the Aztecs, to grow crops.

Etymology

Origin of chinampa

1830–40; < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl < chinamitl area enclosed by canes + pa on

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

chinampa

So do the Mexican chinampa farmers working to restore local food to disenfranchised urban communities.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

Today, the future of chinampa agriculture hinges on a pocket of protected fields stewarded by local farmers in the marshy outskirts of Mexico City.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

These fields are now at risk as demand for housing drives informal settlements into the chinampa zone.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

But archaeology has revealed that generations of sustainable chinampa management could be overturned almost overnight.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024

They are all gone now, at any rate, though the name of chinampa is still applied to the gardens along the canal.

From Anahuac : or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern by Edward Burnett Tylor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023