zacate

noun

za·ca·te

zəˈkätē,

sə-

plural -s

: forage of grassy plants : herbage

[borrowed from Philippine Spanish, borrowed from Mexican Spanish] Philippines : ricegrass sense 1

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Mexican Spanish, borrowed from Nahuatl zacatl “dry grass, hay,” going back to Uto-Aztecan *saka-t (whence also Tarahumara sakará “grass for forage,” Southern Tepehuan va-haak “grass stems,” Hopi tuusaqa “grass” and probably Cahuilla sáxa-t “willow tree,” Luiseño şaxá-t “arroyo willow”

Note: The Nahuatl word is thus defined in the Florentine Codex: “Çacatl; icentoca çacatl in xivitl in ovac, in amo tlacotl” (“It is the common name of grass, of the herbs, when dried; not the stalk,” as translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J.O. Anderson; see Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, Book 11 - Earthly Things [University of Utah, 1963], p. 196). For further cognates, reconstruction and documentation, see Brian D. Stubbs, Uto-Aztecan: A Comparative Vocabulary (Blanding, Utah: 2011), p. 201.