Coyote entered English from Mexican Spanish, which had taken the word from Nahuatl coyōtl. A local animal name travelled across two language boundaries. Naming the direct donor and naming the deeper source answer different historical questions.
coyote
A wild North American member of the dog family.
Coyote came from Mexican Spanish.
How coyote reached English
oldest firstNahuatl
coyōtl
‘Coyote’
into Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish
coyote
‘Coyote’
into English
English
coyote
‘The wild canid’
The story of coyote
Related
A Spanish-looking word can preserve an older Indigenous American name.