imɨ́ɨni³ ‘madre’ or ‘mother’, a being closely associated with a plant, or [...]

Part of Speech	noun
Irregular Plural	imɨ́ɨka
Root	imɨ́ɨni

• • ‘madre’ or ‘mother’, a being closely associated with a plant, or less commonly, some other entity, such as a geographical feature like a body of water; This being is typically understood as caring for entity with which it is associated, with the most common instance of this kind of relationship being a symbiotic one between insects and plants, as in the case of <tamɨ́ɨna imɨ́ɨni>, the ant species that lives in the trunk of the <tamɨ́ɨna> tree, attacking anything that comes into contact with it; the relationship can, however, also be a harmful one to the plant, as in the case of <náana imɨ́ɨni>, a weevil that bores holes in the trees in which it is found

Related entries

• Main Entry:
  • támuu imɨ́ɨni species of edible caterpillar that reaches about 3cm in length and mainly feeds on the leaves of <támuu> (‘guaba’) trees; lacking spines or stinging hairs, it is marked with lengthwise stripes of yellow, orange, red, and black, and is eaten cooked in ‘patarashca’
  • tatɨɨ imɨ́ɨni ‘madre del emponado’, species of small insect, a little larger than a louse, that comes to infest palm wood floors, after they are a few years old, and bites people who lie down on them
• Subentry:
  • imɨ́ɨka² ‘madre’, protective spirit (plural)