Muy Muy
Encyclopedia
Muy Muy is a municipality
in the Matagalpa
department
of Nicaragua
.
Although "Muy Muy" means "very very" in Spanish, the municipality was named so by the Nahuatl, for whom "muymuy" means "nutria," which were once found in abundance in the region.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the Matagalpa
Matagalpa (department)
Matagalpa is a department or region in central Nicaragua. It covers an area of 8,523 km² and has a population of 644,900 . The capital is the city of Matagalpa with about 250.000....
department
Departments of Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a unitary republic, and for administrative purposes, it is divided into 15 departments and two self-governing regions based on the Spanish model:-Zelaya Department:...
of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
.
Although "Muy Muy" means "very very" in Spanish, the municipality was named so by the Nahuatl, for whom "muymuy" means "nutria," which were once found in abundance in the region.
- This needs to be clarified, since the meaning of "nutria" is not clear. It seems that in North America, "nutria" means "coypuCoypuThe coypu , , also known as the river rat, and nutria, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by...
" (myocastor coypus), an animal related to the beaverBeaverThe beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
(genus castoridae). If this article was written by North-Americans, it probably refers to this animal. However, Nicaragua is a Spanish-speaking country, and Spanish-to-English dictionaries translate the Spanish word "nutria" as "OtterOtterThe Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....
" (genus lutra). To make matters worse, there is some evidence that Muymuy refers to a sand crab or some sort of sand-dwelling animal (emerita analoga) (see the discussion section in http://www.proz.com/kudoz/4345789)