oyamel

English

Etymology

Nahuatl [Term?]

Noun

oyamel (plural oyamels)

1. 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^[1]:

     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.

Spanish

Etymology

From a Nahuatl source, cf. Classical Nahuatl oyametl.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /oʝaˈmel/ [o.ʝaˈmel]

• 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)

1. 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