An Etymological Study of 'Moxie' and 'Namuyi'
This 1991 article by He Jiren, published in Minzu Yuwen (Ethnic Languages), investigates the historical and linguistic relationship between "Moxie" (摩些/磨些/么些), the ethnonym long used in Chinese historical records for the ancestors of the Naxi people, and "Namuyi," the self-designation of a related group in Sichuan. Surveying variant transcriptions across dynastic histories and gazetteers, and evaluating three existing hypotheses about the origin of "Moxie" (a Yak-Qiang derivation, a "we don't understand" folk etymology, and a Yuan-Mongol personal name), the author rejects all three. Drawing on Naxi naming customs, matriarchal-clan terminology, and comparative Naxi-Namuyi vocabulary and syntax, He argues that "Namuyi" means "descendants of Namu," that Namuyi and the Naxi subgroup Naru share deep historical kinship, and that "Moxie" is most likely a transliteration of the Naxi phrase "Namuruo."
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