Huastec

American  

[wahs-tek] / ˈwɑs tɛk /

noun

plural

Huastecs,

plural

Huastec

1. a member of an Indigenous people of Mexico.

2. the Mayan language of the Huastec.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Huastec or their language.

Other Word Forms

• Haustecan adjective

Etymology

Origin of Huastec

First recorded in 1835–45; from Mexican Spanish huasteco from Nahuatl huāxtēcatl “person from Huāxtlān, ” equivalent to huāx(in), a tropical tree that produces edible pods + -tlān locative suffix + -tēcatl suffix of ethnic names

Example Sentences

“This is a very important piece,” said archaeologist Sara Ladron de Guevara, a scholar of Mexico’s Huastec culture, pointing in particular to the cross-shaped open mouth.

From Reuters • May 27, 2023

It is believed that the sculpture depicts a leading female member of the Huastec people at the time of its creation.

From BBC • Oct. 12, 2021

High in these hills lie the ancestral lands of the Huastec people, with villages, coffee farms, rugged slopes and powerful waterfalls.

From The Guardian • Oct. 31, 2017

Star, in Huastec, ot; in Mongol, oddon; in Aztec, citlal, citl; in Persian, sitareh.

From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Humboldt, Alexander von