In the book, "Genealogia de Nochistlan Antiguo Reino de la Nueva Galicia en el Siglo XVII Segun Sus Archivos Parroquiales" I am seeing the term "Moco" and "Moca" throughout and wondering if that is a misspelling of "mozo" and "moza"? For example, here is an entry from page 104:
Maria Yniguez de Estrada, moca espanola doncella, hija de Lorenzo Mexia . . . (dated 1649 in Nochistlan)
In the 1998 edition of Spanish Colonial Terms (by Ophelia Marquez & Lilian Ramos Navarro Wold), they included the term "Mozo" and "Moza" as follows. That seems to fit within the context here.
Does anyone know the referenced term? Thank you!
| Mozo; | Youth, young man, lad, bachelor; manservant. A younger person with the same name, usually related. |
| Moza; | Younger woman. |
Yeah, there wasn't a link. What I referenced above was a hard copy book that is not digitized anywhere. However, someone already helped me identify the origin of the term. Love this site!
They are older spellings of mozo and moza that use the c-cedilla (ç).
- cedilla (https://dle.rae.es/cedilla)
- Çç (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87)
- For example: Aldonça, Gonçalo
Mil gracias! This makes sense and definitely explains how the term is used in this context. Since it was also used after "indio" or "india" it seems this is what the term was referring to. Thanks again!
moco vs mozo .....