schools for youth, where they were trained in military, administrative, and religious duties; involved a rigorous lifestyle, with fasting, vigils, and self-mortification, such as bloodletting, midnight offerings to the deities, sweeping, and more. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
calmecac in tenonotzaloia, in teizcaltiloian, chipaoaca nemoooaian, necxiieiecoloia, nemachoia ixtlamachoia, qualtioaia, iectioaia = calmecac was a place where one was admonished, where one was instructed, a place where one lived chastely, a place where [fleetness of] foot was tested, a place of prudence, a place of wisdom, a place of making good, of making righteous. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
ontetzontecomeque, ça ce in jntlac vnpa qujmonujcaia in tlillan calmecac, vmpa qujmjttaia in motecuçuma: in oqujttac njman poliujia = They had two heads, but only one body. They took them there to the Tlillan calmecac, where Moctezuma beheld them. When he had looked at them, then they vanished. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Book Six of the Florentine Codex, the encyclopedia of Nahua civilization compiled by the Franciscan Berdardino de Sahagún, describes how loving parents, in order to ensure that a baby would live, promised to take the child, when it was partly grown, to either the elite calmecac school or to the telpochcalli ‘youth house.’ (Sahagún 1950–82:bk6:209–218) (central Mexico, late sixteenth century).
calmecatl = priestly dormitory/school (according to Sahagún, one of the names for the "houses of the devil") (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
injc amo iciuhca mjqujz piltontli, teupan qujtoa, teupan qujpoa: ijollotlama in tenan, in teta in canpa qujpoaz: aҫo calmecac, anoҫo telpuchcali = in order, it was said, that the baby would not quickly die, declared it to be for the temple, assigned it to the temple. Where it would be assigned, either to the calmecac or to the telpochcalli, was as the mother, as the father determined (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Intla calmecac qujpoa: mjtoa: calmecac caquja in oqujchtli, tlamacazquj iez, tlamaceuhquj iez, chipaoacanemjz = If they assigned him to the calmecac, it was said they put the male in the calmecac to be a priest (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
in mjtzvenchiuh in monantzin, in motatzin in calmecac mjtzpouh in ochpanoaztli, in tlacujcujliztli ticmochivililiz in tlacatl, in totecujo, in topiltzin in Quetzalcoatl = thy mother, thy father dedicated thee, presented thee as an offering to the calmecac. They assigned thee to the sweeping, to the cleaning for the lord, our lord Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
In axcan ma xoiatiuh in vnpa omjtzamapouh, in vnpa omjtzcopalpouh in monantzin, in motatzin in calmecac, in choqujzcali, in jxaiocali, in tlaoculcali, in vncan mopitza, momamali: in vncan xotla, cueponj in tepilhoan: in vncan cozcateuh, quetzalteuh motemanilia, motevipanjlia in totecujo in tloque, naoaque: in vncan moteicnoittilia, in vncan motepepenjlia in jpalnemoa = Now go where thy mother, thy father have dedicated thee with paper, with incense, to the calmecac, the house of weeping, the house of tears, the house of sadness, where the sons of noblemen are cast, are perforated; where they bud, where they blossom; where like precious necklaces, like precious feathers they are placed, ordered by our lord, the lord of the near, of the nigh; where he by whom we live showeth compassion, where he selecteth one (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
calmecac = school, primarily for noble youths (mostly boys), that offered religious training
calmecac (noun) = a public school