Tenochtitlan.

Headword:

Tenochtitlan.

Principal English Translation:

On the Cactus of the Stone (see Karttunen, "en el tunal de la piedra"); or, Born from the Stone (see Karttunen); the name of the altepetl at the center of the so-called Aztec empire, remaining as an indigenous entity within Mexico City in the time of the Spaniards
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 233.

IPAspelling:

tenotʃtitɬɑn

Frances Karttunen:

TENOCHTITLAN Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica / (Tenochtitlán), en el tunal de la piedra, o nacido en la piedra (R) [(4)Bf.4r,9V,11r, (I)Rp.144]. B specifically marks the vowels of the first three syllables short. This contrasts with TENŌCHTIC 'something painted, mottled' as attested in T. NŌCH-TLI 'fruit of the prickly pear cactus' is often cited as a constituent of this name, but it contrasts in vowel length.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 225.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

full name Mēxihco Tenochtitlan. the meaning and nature of tenoch- is not entirely clear despite general consensus that it refers to a type of cactus. the rest is -t(i)-, -tlan. 233

Attestations from sources in English:

See an image that represents Tenochtitlan in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

ynic tiquimittazque yn ixquich yn techyahuallotoc yxquich tiquinpehuazque tiquimaçizque. yc maniz yn taltepeuh mexico. tenochtitlan. quauhtli ypipitzcayan ynetomayan. quauhtli ytlaquayan. yhuan michin ypatlanian. yhuan cohuatl yçomocayan = Thus shall we find all who lie surrounding us, all whom we shall conquer, whom we shall capture. Thus will our altepetl of Mexico Tenochtitlan be, the place where the eagle screeches and stretches itself; where the eagle eats and the fish fly and the serpent hisses.... (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 102–103.

mexico tenochtitlan yn iuh mochintin ipan in altepehuaque quellehuia = in Mexico Tenochtitlan, as all the citizens there desire (central Mexico, 1608)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 152–3.

themes:

Imperialism (Indigenous)

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

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