Wiktionary

Maya

See also: maya, mayá, maþa, and māyā

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Spanish maya, from Yucatec Maya mayab (“flat”), a self-designation of the northern Maya for themselves, in the form maya’ found in compounds and phrases e.g. maya’ wíinik (“Maya man”).

  A user suggests that this English entry be cleaned up, giving the reason: “senses ("member or descendant of") and translation ("civilization") don't match: Finnish mayakulttuuri & German Mayakultur only denote the civilisation but not a person.”
Please see the discussion on Requests for cleanup(+) for more information and remove this template after the problem has been dealt with.

Noun

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Maya (plural Mayas or Maya)

  1. A member or descendant of various peoples:
    1. a flourishing Mesoamerican civilization that existed in and around Guatemala from the 3rd century to the 9th century.
    2. various Mesoamerican peoples that continued in competing civilizations from the 10th century onward until conquered by Spain
    3. various Mesoamerican peoples living in the Spanish Empire, and now parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras
    4. a variety of Mesoamerican peoples with farming from around 1000 BC onward, who developed a large civilization from the 3rd century onward
Derived terms
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Translations
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Proper noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Maya

  1. The Yucatec Maya language.
  2. Any of the other various Mayan languages, such as Quiché, Mam and Tzotzil.
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Further reading

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Ethnologue report on the Maya languages

Etymology 2

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From Maria, ultimately from Hebrew, and from Maia, from Latin.

Proper noun

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Maya

  1. A female given name from Hebrew of modern usage.
    • 1988, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Picasso, Creator and Destroyer, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 240:
      When her little friends asked her what her name was, her father replied that it was Conchita - his diminutive for Maria de la Concepción. "Con-what?" they would ask again, aware, apparently, that con in French is a fool, an idiot. So her parents started calling her Maria, which from the little girl's lips soon began to sound like Maya. "Maya!" exclaimed her father. "It's perfect. It means the greatest illusion on earth." So Maya it was from then on - Maya Walter.
Translations
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Etymology 3

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Transliteration of Sanskrit माया (māyā).

Proper noun

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Maya

  1. In Sanskrit, illusion; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
  2. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.
    • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Phoenix House, →ISBN, page 891:
      Eventually, Pran and Savita decided by correspondence on Maya. Its two simple syllables meant, among other things: the goddess Lakshmi, illusion, fascination, art, the goddess Durga, kindness, and the name of the mother of Buddha. It also meant: ignorance, delusion, fraud, guile, and hypocrisy; but no one who named their daughter Maya ever paid any attention to those pejorative possibilities.
      - - - 'Why ever not, Ma?' said Meenakshi.'It's a very Bengali name, a very nice name.'

Etymology 4

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Transliteration of Sanskrit माया (māyā́) or Pali Māyā.

Proper noun

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Maya

  1. (Buddhism) The mother of Gautama Buddha.
Translations
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Anagrams

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Danish

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Proper noun

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Maya

  1. a female given name of modern usage, variant of Maja

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈmaː.jaː/
  • Hyphenation: Ma‧ya

Etymology 1

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Noun

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Maya c (plural Maya's)

  1. a Maya; a member of the Maya people

Etymology 2

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Proper noun

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Maya f

  1. a female given name

French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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Maya m or f by sense (plural Mayas)

  1. Mayan (person)

German

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Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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Maya m (strong, genitive Mayas or Maya, plural Mayas or Maya)

  1. Maya

Derived terms

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Proper noun

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Maya

  1. a female given name of modern usage, variant of Maja

Turkish

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Proper noun

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Maya

  1. a female given name
  2. a mountain name in Balkans
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