twoh tah

Today’s Navajo word is tóta’, which means ‘in between water’.

Tóta’ is also the name for Farmington, New Mexico because the city is situated between bodies of water to its east, south, and west.

This word is made up of tó and -ta’ (as in bita’).

Tó, which was our word for October 23rd, means water.

The -ta’ root is related to another word, bitah – without the abrupt glottal stop – which means ‘among it’. Add the glottal stop and the word bita’ becomes ‘in between it (or them)’.

If you’re looking for similar words to tóta’, here are a few from the archives:

• tózis - that which girds water
• tónteel - water that is wide