oyamel
English
Etymology
Nahuatl [Term?]
Noun
oyamel (plural oyamels)
- Abies religiosa, the sacred fir, an evergreen coniferous tree of South America with needle-like leaves.
- 2008 March 7, Andrew C. Revkin, “Loggers Invaded Butterfly Haven, Photos Show”, in New York Times:
- Forests of oyamel fir trees in Michoacán and Mexico States have for thousands of years been a winter haven for the resplendent orange and black butterflies, the most famous “charismatic megafauna” of the insect world, said Lincoln P. Brower, a professor emeritus of biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who has studied the butterflies and their shrinking winter habitat for decades.
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Spanish
Etymology
From a Nahuatl source, cf. Classical Nahuatl oyametl.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /oʝaˈmel/ [o.ʝaˈmel]
- IPA(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /oʃaˈmel/ [o.ʃaˈmel]
- IPA(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /oʒaˈmel/ [o.ʒaˈmel]
- Rhymes: -el
- Syllabification: o‧ya‧mel
Noun
oyamel m (plural oyameles)
- sacred fir (Abies religiosa)
References
- Carlos Montemayor et al. (2009) Diccionario del náhuatl en el español de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, page 99