English

Noun

Mexican ‎(plural Mexicans)

1. (obsolete) A Mexica; an Aztec.
   • 1660: Joseph Hall, The Shaking of the Olive-Tree, p. 260

     Surely, nature it ſelf calls to us for this reſpect to a deity, even the very ſavage Indians may teach us this point of religion; amongſt whom we find the Mexicans, a people that had never had any intercourſe with the other three parts of the World, Eminent in this kinde; what ſumptuous, and ſtately Temples had they erected to their Devils: How did they enrich their miſ-called Gods with Magazins of their treaſure?

   • 1677: Richard Gilpin, Daemonologia Sacra, or, a Treatise of Satans Temptations, pp. 255–256

     Not unlike to this were thoſe morſels of Paſte, which the Mexicans uſed in their Religious Feaſts, which they laid at their Idols Feet, conſecrating them by Singing and other Ceremonies, and then they called them the Fleſh and Bones of their God Vitziliputzli

   • 1782: review of Storia antica del Messico, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, vol. 54, p. 144

     The Aztecheſe, or Mexicans, were the laſt who arrived in Anahuac.

2. (obsolete) The Nahuatl language.
   • 1856: Arthur Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, vol. 2, p. 239

     Painala was in the Mexican province of Coatzacualco: she was accordingly able to speak Mexican.

3. A person from Mexico or of Mexican descent.
   • 2011 October 15, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 1 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:

     The Mexican levelled nine minutes from time after Steven Gerrard, making his first start since undergoing groin surgery in April, put Liverpool ahead with a 68th-minute free-kick.

4. (US, slang, offensive) A person from, or of descent from, any Spanish-speaking country.
5. The Mexican dialect of Spanish.
   • 1970, Stan Steiner, La raza: the Mexican Americans, page 224

     "You see, I never learned to speak Spanish, but speak Mexican fluently," he says disarmingly.

   • 1998, Richard Montoya, Ricardo Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, Culture Clash: Life, Death, and Revolutionary Comedy, page 23

     You really scare me when you speak Mexican.

   • 2000, Ben K. Green, The Village Horse Doctor: West of the Pecos, page 87

     I didn't speak much Mexican, but I savvied a lot more than I could speak and picked the word banditos out of their conversation.

6. (Australia, slang, Queensland) A person from either of the southern states of New South Wales and Victoria.

Synonyms

• (Mexica): Mexica, Aztec
• (language): Nahuatl, Aztec

Translations

Adjective

Mexican ‎(comparative more Mexican, superlative most Mexican)

1. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to the Mexica people.
2. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to the Nahuatl language.
   • 1795: W. Winterbotham, An Historical, Geographical, Commercial, and Philosophical View of the American United States, vol 4, p. 87

     The principal grain of Mexico, before the introduction of thoſe from Europe, was maize, in the Mexican language called tluolli, of which there were ſeveral kinds, different in ſize, weight, colour, and taſte.

   • 1810: review of "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain", in The Eclectic Review

     The language most universally diffused over the new continent, is the Aztec or Mexican.

3. Of, from, or pertaining to Mexico.

Synonyms

• (people): Mexica, Aztec
• (language): Nahuatl, Aztec

Translations

Derived terms

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• meksikanar, mexicanar

Alternative forms

• meksikan

Noun

mexican m ‎(definite singular mexicanen, indefinite plural mexicanar, definite plural mexicanane)

1. Mexican (person from Mexico or of Mexican descent)

Related terms

• Mexico
• meksikansk, mexicansk