metate

American  

[muh-tah-tee, me-tah-te] / məˈtɑ ti, mɛˈtɑ tɛ /

noun

metates plural

1. a flat stone that has a shallow depression in the upper surface for holding maize or other grains to be ground with a mano.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• metates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of metate

1825–35, < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl metlatl

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

metate metates

The woman's mother had buried her molcajete, metate, comal, and cazuelas in a hole in the ground and fled.

From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2023

Each of the seating areas has a bench shaped like a metate and a brand that marks the cattle of that region.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2021

Now and then she flicked bits of cinnamon onto the pocked ashen surface of the metate.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2021

An original mano and metate, a pair of stones used for grinding, lay on the dirt floor of one room.

From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2015

Tusayan roof drains; a discarded metate and a gourd.

From A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Nichols, Henry Hobart

Some archaeologists believe the metates may have been used not just as thrones, but also as seats for carrying the bundled and decorated bodies of the dead to their final resting place.

From National Geographic

The metates also display many puzzling pseudo-glyphs on them that have yet to be studied and deciphered.

From National Geographic

The rubbing stones have the same names as the metates.

From A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Nichols, Henry Hobart

In each compartment one of these metates or grinding stones is firmly set at a proper angle to make it convenient to the kneeling female grinder.

From Illustrated Catalogue Of The Collections Obtained From The Indians Of New Mexico And Arizona In 1879 Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-81, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 307-428 by Stevenson, James

The other side of the dividing pier forms a recess, that is wholly given up to a series of metates or mealing stones; an indispensable feature of every pueblo household.

From A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228 by Nichols, Henry Hobart