moqui
moqui Lexical Profile
• adjective
American Relating to the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, their language, or their historical artifacts and geological formations (often capitalized; now chiefly historical).
"Geologists studied the iron oxide concretions known locally as Moqui marbles in the Navajo Sandstone of southern Utah."
• noun
American A historical exonym for a member of the Hopi, an Indigenous Puebloan people of northeastern Arizona (often capitalized; now dated and superseded by Hopi).
"Nineteenth-century ethnographic accounts frequently referred to the Hopi villages using the older term Moqui."
Any of several small, tailless South American hystricomorph rodents of the family Caviidae (especially of the genus Microcavia, the mountain cavies), native to arid and semi-arid regions of the Andes and southern South America.
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to the Indigenous people of northeastern Arizona, 'Moqui' (or 'Moki') is an outdated and potentially offensive exonym; the self-designation 'Hopi' is the standard and respectful term in modern usage.
• Rhymes for moqui
Word Origin & Etymology
The ethnological term was borrowed via Spanish from a Zuni or Hopi root of uncertain origin; the zoological name for the South American rodent derives from local Indigenous languages of the Andean region.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.