cahuitl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cahuitl.

Principal English Translation:

time (see Molina, Karttunen, Lockhart)

IPAspelling:

kɑːwitɬ

Alonso de Molina:

cahuitl. tiempo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, f. 13r.

Frances Karttunen:

CĀHU(I)-TL time / tiempo (M)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 21.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

ixquich cahuitl, the whole time, as long as, generally in expressions with a sense related to "until."
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), 212.

Attestations from sources in English:

ynixquichcauitl tlamiz cemanavac = at the end of the world (Tula, 1570)
John Frederick Schwaller, "Constitution of the Cofradía del Santíssimo Sacramento of Tula, Hidalgo, 1570," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 19 (1989), 219–221.

Nican ompehua ontzinti yn huehue Mexica Metztlapohualli yn iuh nican Metztlapohuaya y ye huecauh huehuetque catca Mexica tenuchca yhuan tlatilulca. yn onemico ipan oc ce cahuitl. = Here begins and commences the ancient Mexica month count as in the past the long-departed Mexica Tenochca and Tlatelolca ancestors counted the months when they lived in [those] other times. (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. 2, 118–119.

yn Az-capotzalco tlaca, ynic achto opeuh. yníc otzintic ynin Altepetl. ypan achtopa cahuitl = in A:zcapo:tzalco tla:ca, ini:c achto o:pe:uh ini:c o:tzi:ntic ini:n a:ltepe:tl i:pan achtopa ca:huitl. = ...the Azcapotzalco people, who first undertook to establish their city in the first era. (Tlaxcala, ca. 1600)
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 25.

Ypan ynin cahuítl. Ye tlatocatia Huexotzinco. = As this time there already was a ruler of Huexotzinco. (Tlaxcala, ca. 1600)
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 32.

chicnahui tlapoalpan cahuitl oquizquí Ynic cenmochtin yní macehualhuan = Chiucna:hui tlapo:hualpan ca:huitl o:quizqui pana ini:c cenmochtin in i:ma:cehualhua:n. = In one hundred and eighty days time all his vassals left together. (Tlaxcala, ca. 1600)
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 12.

cahuytl tlapua = the reckoning of time
Byron McAfee, translation of the Techialoyan manuscript from Santa Mara Zolotepec or Ocelotepec; University of California, Los Angeles, Special Collections

aҫo achica, aҫo cemjlvitl, aҫo achica cavitl = Perhaps for a little while, perhaps for a day, perhaps for a little time (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), 18.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

axcan ypan xapato mo poa nahui cali tecpatl cali tochi acatl chihuitl cahuitl zipatli= ehecatl= cali= cuespali= cohuatl= miquistli= masatl= tochi= atl= iscuintli= osomatl= minali= acatl= ocelotl= quautli= coscaquautli= olin= tecpatl= quiahuitl= chochitl = a hoy en éste día sábado que se cuenta cuatro casa. Pedernal, Casa, Consejo, Caña, signos de los años en el Tiempo estos cuatro signos se cuentan. Lagarto, Mono, Viento, Yerba tocida, Casa, Caña, Lagartija, Tigre, Culebra, Aguila, Muerte, Aguila de collar, Venado, Movimiento, Conejo, Pedernal, Agua, Lluvia, Perro, Flor (Estado de Hidalgo, ca. 1722?)
Rocío Cortés, El "nahuatlato Alvarado" y el Tlalamatl Huauhquilpan: Mecanismos de la memoria colectiva de una comunidad indígena (New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Colonial Spanish American Series, 2011), 34, 46-47.

yxquich cahuitl onicnotlatequipanilhuilli yno santa confradia = mucho tiempo la he servido a la Santa Cofradía (Toluca, 1621)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 132–133.

nauhcampa yxti minetolle onicatca yn ixquich cahuitl yn maço nelihui = en los cuatro he sido cofrada, donde estuve tan tanto con tiempo asentado mi cu[e]rpo (Toluca, 1621)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 130–131.

auh yn ixquich cauitl ynic omoteylhui nauhxiuitl = el tiempo que duró la demanda fue de cuatro años (Ciudad de México, 1563)
Luis Reyes García, Eustaquio Celestino Solís, Armando Valencia Ríos, et al, Documentos nauas de la Ciudad de México del siglo XVI (México: Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Archivo General de la Nación, 1996), 101.

themes:

Time, Calendar, Frequency