a thorn; a spine (singular or plural) Louise M. Burkhart, Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 224.
often associated with self-sacrifice and bloodletting
(SW)
a plant with medicinal value; the bark is mashed and drunk with water to "evacuate all the humors by the inferior route" (Valley of Mexico, 1570–1587) The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 116.
a spiny tree, or a hawthorn (see Molina); Gordon Whittaker says the term blends "huitz-" (thorns) with "achin" (a lot of, many), resulting in very thorny Discovering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 99)
(central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 109.
(central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 109.
a diviniity or a sacred or divine force, associated with salt and with rituals relating to water, fertility; "Woman of the Huixtotin" (connected with the Popoloca speakers; the term Huixtotin was also associated with sacrificial victims who wore headpieces with eagle claws) Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 106.