Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An animal form which a person may take.
- n. A person who is able to take an animal form.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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Dating back to pre-Hispanic times, the nahual is a shape shifter who switches between human and animal forms and is often characterized as a shaman.
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El Pachuco also shows us his Aztec origin when he becomes the nahual or the "other self" who comforts Henry during his stay in solitary confinement.
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The poets of the obituaries proposed his soul was twinned with the great matador's like a nahual and argued the denouement was fitting:
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Yes, there was one vampire and I am started to get a bit tired of vampires at this point, especially since I was never a big fan of them in the first place, but this supernatural world also contains kelpies, selkies, gnomes, djinn, nahual, a barghest, and nagas.
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The nahual can assume any form, and most others are two-formed, meaning they can be either human or some sort of animal.
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Tonalá potters customarily depict the nahual as a large cat with a smiling face.
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Of particular note are the decorative details, as both artisans have embellished their work with painted symbols that are characteristic of Tonalá pottery - the nahual and the flor de Tonalá.
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Both pieces have a sun and nahual motif set against the characteristic crosshatch pattern.
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The learned historian, Orozco y Berra, speaks of the powers attributed at the present day to the _nahual_ in Mexico among the lower classes, in these words:
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The form _nagual_ instead of _nahual_, or _naual_, or
qms commented on the word nahual
If you should be born a narwhal
And find it won’t suit you at all,
Apply to a shaman
To make you a cayman
Or other exotic nahual.
July 10, 2018