cacalaca. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cacalaca.

Principal English Translation:

for the bells to ring; or, for a pottery container that has little stones in it to rattle; or, for cocoa beans or the like to be damaged when they are counted or thrown on the ground (see Molina) (an onomatopoetic word)

IPAspelling:

kɑkɑlɑkɑ

Alonso de Molina:

cacalaca. (pret. ocacalacac.) sonar el caxcauel, o la vasija de barro que tiene dentro pedrezuelas, o el cacao dañado quando lo cuentan, o echan enel suelo, o cosa semejante.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 10v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CACALACA to rattle / sonar el cascabel, o la vasija de barro que tiene dentro pedrezuelas, o el cacao dañado cuando lo cuentan, o echan en el suelo, o cosa semejante (M), suena (Z) See CACALATZ(A), CALĀN(I). CACALACHILIĀ applic. CACALACA CACALACHILĪLŌ nonact. CACALACA
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 18, 19.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

injc amo cacalactimotlaliz in piltzintli, injc amo aiooaaqujz = so that baby not be formed like a pottery rattle, so that it not result as a gourd rattle (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 157.yoan ychimal ietiuh, ymac mantiuh, ic momamantiuh: yoan ichicaoaz ietiuh, chicaoaçotiuh, qujtilquetztiuh in chicaoaztli, chachalaca, cacalaca = And he bore his shield, which went resting on his arm, and he carried his rattle stick, which he went rattling, and he proceeded planting his rattle stick on the ground, and it rattled and jingled. (16th century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 45.

IDIEZ morfema:

cacalaca.

IDIEZ traduc. inglés:

for s.t. that is hollow and filled with small things to make a loud sound upon falling or being shaken.

IDIEZ def. náhuatl:

Tepoztli zo tlamantli tlen cacahuatic huan quipiya ce tlenhueli iihtico caquizti chicahuac quemman huetzi zo quemman moholiniah. “Berta iconeuh tlahuel quiamati quen cacalaca cuatecomitl quemman quihuihuixoa. ”

IDIEZ def. español:

A. Una cosa que se cai o lo avientan y se escucha fuerte.”Aquel huaje se escucha porque ya se secó su semilla”.

IDIEZ morfología:

calāni (tlaomp. )

IDIEZ gramática:

tlach1.

themes:

Chocolate, Cocoa, Cacao

Sensory Perception (sound, smell, etc.)