One of the hardest things about growing up Mexican [American] is learning to clean.

If you don't wash dishes properly or wring out the mop properly, you leave behind an odor that moms & abuelas despise.

That's right. I'm back with ...

MEXICAN X PART XV: SHOOK BY CHOQUÍA

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This elusive but unpleasant odor has several variants: the main choquía, plus choquiaque, choquilla, choquío, choquillo, chuquía & chuquiaque.

It's tough to explain the smell to people who aren't familiar. A blend of mold with hints of egg and fish? Not pleasant.

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I frankly don't know if there's a word in English (or in other dialects of Spanish) for this lingering stink, because all my life I've called it "choquía."

A linguistic gift to the rest of the word.

From Spanish?

Nah. Not originally.

From Nahuatl.

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In Classical Nahuatl, "xoquiyac" broadly meant "smelly" or "having a strong scent," but it usually meant a stink.

"xoquiyac ehuatoc in eztli" - "a stench arose from the blood"

"inic xoquiyac tēixihuintih" - "with its stench, it stupified people"

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And there were intensified variants of this adjective: xoquiyatic, xoquiyaltic, xoquipototl ... each a little stinkier than the last.

Xoquiyac was mostly used to describe the smell of fish.

"ahmo quicua in xoquiyac, in iuh michin" - "he doesn't eat smelly stuff like fish"

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The word was used to describe a fishy smell so much that it came to *stand* for fish in a metonymical sort of way.

A fish seller, normally called a "michnāmacaqui," was also known as a "xoquiyacānāmacac" - "seller of stinky flesh" (i.e., fish).

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In previous entries in the Mexican X series, I've shown that very few Nahuatl words beginning with an "x" ("sh" sound in English) were borrowed into Spanish with a "ch" instead.

This one's an exception to that general rule.

xoquiyac [sho KEE yahk] --> choquilla / choquía

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But in some regions of Mexico, the initial "sh" sound is preserved, especially where there is constant contact with an indigenous language that uses that sound a lot.

And the final syllables vary from -quilla (KEE yah) to quía (KEE ah), with some people using a final -o.

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There were several related terms:

-xoquihui, to stink
-xoquipotoihui, to stink like fish
-xoquihiyacācōhuia, to buy stinky things
-xoquiyaliztli, which Molina defined as "a stench like sulphur or other similar things," and its variant
-xoquixliztli, fetid odor

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While we're on the subject of stink, Juan Carlos has mentioned that his family calls this "poshcaguado."

Oh, yes. I know that word. Most folks say "aposcaguado," and to me its a little more moldy than choquía.

Ah, and it's also from Nahuatl!

Poxcauhcāyoh. Moldy.

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To some ears, "choquía" and "aposcaguado" are pretty much synonyms, but I'd use the latter more to describe fabrics, especially clothes that were left too long in the washing machine before being tossed into the dryer.

That moldy odor, you know the one.

11/

THAT will get you a pinche coscorrón ... and you'll have to re-wash the clothes and immediately dry them (and your ma / abuela will probably make you fold them, too).

So, "enséñesen," as mine used to say. Learn yourselves to do that cleaning right!

Nobody likes choquía.

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