México

Etymology
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Etymology
1579, from, originally a toponym for the Valley of Mexico. Aside from the element, the Nahuatl locative suffix, the etymology of this place-name remains uncertain. It has been suggested to be derived from, a name belonging to the Aztecs' patron god Huitzilopochtli, in which case the associated locative name could be interpreted as ("place of Huitzilopochtli" or “place where Huitzilopochtli lives”). Another hypothesis suggests the name to be a portmanteau of the words +, hence the hypothetical original form *Mētzxīcco, meaning “place at the navel/center of the moon”, perhaps referring to the city of Tenochtitlan's position in Lake Texcoco, which was the central lake of a system of interconnected lakes whose shape was likened to that of a rabbit by the Aztecs; an animal associated to the moon. (If that is the case, then the sound of tz in mētz- has been absorbed into the initial x  of -xīc-, while the geminate cc  in -xīcco has been transformed into the consonant cluster hc .) A third hypothesis suggests a derivation incorporating  (stem me-), perhaps from, a maguey goddess,.