Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the

Purépecha culture The Purépecha ( ) are a group of Indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the derogatory term " Tarascan", an exonym, appl ...

. It may refer to: * the

Tarascan State Tarascan or Tarasca is an exonym and the popular name for the Purépecha culture. It may refer to: * the Tarascan State, a Mesoamerican empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the Purépecha ...

, a

Mesoamerican Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

empire until the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, located in (present-day) west-central Mexico * the

Purépecha people The Purépecha ( ) are a group of Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the derogatory term ...

* the

Purépecha language Purépecha ( autonym: or ), often called Tarascan (), a term coined by Spanish settlers that can be seen as pejorative, is a language isolate or small language family that is spoken by some 140,000 Purépecha in the highlands of Michoacán, Mex ...

The term has pejorative connotations of "loathsomeness and disgust" when it refers to the people or their language.

Etymology

The name "Tarascan" (and its Spanish-language equivalent, "tarasco") comes from the word "tarascue" in the Purépecha language, which means indistinctly "father-in-law" or "son-in-law". The Spanish took it as their name, for reasons that have been attributed to different, mostly legendary, stories. The

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

name for the Purépecha was "Michhuàquê" ("those who have fish"), whence the name of the Mexican state of

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

References

{{reflist Exonyms Purépecha Ethnonyms