capitán.

(a loanword from Spanish)

Headword: 
capitán.
Principal English Translation: 

captain, leader of an armed group; in early sixteenth-century contexts, and with no referents, the term can refer to Hernando Cortés; leaders of painting groups were also capitanes

Attestations from sources in English: 

E no yhui quichiuh don hernādo. tecocoltzin auh yn capitan quīnahuati omentin Españoles in quimocuitlahuiaya yn itlā tlapiaya ce tlacatl ytoca Vilaruel ynic omētin ytoca bargas. auh yn omētin quitlaqualchihuiliaya in Españoles ce tlacatl ytoca Escouar ynic omētin itoca ñunez. auh ynic quinahuati capitan. cenca ypan mihmatica catca. ynic tlatocat auh ynin ca ycneliloca mochiuh yn tetzcuco altepetl. = Don Hernando Tecocoltzin also did the same. And the Captain ordered two Spaniards to take care of him, to stand guard near him. One man was named Villaroel; the second was named Vargas. And two Spaniards prepared food for him. One man was named Escobar; the second was named Núñez. And the Captain commanded him to ruler prudently. And this was done to the good of the altepetl of Texcoco. (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, 204–205.

auh in don hernādo. tecohcoltzin in ocontlatocatlali. in capitan = the Captain installed don Hernando Tecocoltzin as ruler. (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, 202–203.

auh in don hernādo tecocoltzin yn iquac momoquili cayac quiteneuhta yn aquin tlatocatiz. = And don Hernando Tecocoltzin, when he died, designated no one who would rule. (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, 200–201.

Auh yn omaxitico yn Capitā yn nicā tetzcuco, nimā cōmotlatocatlalia. yn tecocoltzin. auh nima ye yc motenahuatilia yn tecocoltzin yn acalli moxiaz. = And when the Captain arrived here in Texcoco, he then installed Tecocoltzin as ruler, and thereupon the command was given to Tecocoltzin that boats be built. (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, 188–189.

Auh injc chicuej tlatoanj muchiuh tetzcuco iehoatl in tecocoltzin in tlatocat cexiujtl = And the eighth who became ruler of Texcoco was Tecocoltzin, who ruled one year in the time of the men from Castile. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, 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), 10.

Tecohcoltzin of Tetzcoco was involved in early fighting after Cortés invaded Mexico. (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, 186–187, 188–189.

ytoca tecucul = named Tecocol (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 144–145.

Auh yn iquac ye ompa Cate Españoles. yhuā yn Capitā in ōpa tlaxcallā = And when the Spaniards and the Captain were in Tlaxcala (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, 186–187.

ce español ytoca Juan Rotriguez de Villapoerte capitan yhuan conquistador. quihualhuicac yn Don fernando cortes Marques del valle yn ihquac acico nican mexico yancuican auh ynin cihuapilli Doña Juana yn ihuan capitan Juan Rotriguez de Villapoerte. oquichiuhque oncan otlacat yn Gabriel de Villapoerte mestiço = A Spaniard named Juan Rodríguez de Villafuerte, a captain and conquistador whom don Hernando Cortéz, Marquéz del Valle, brought here when he first arrived in Mexico, took this noblewoman as his mistress. And this noblewoman doña Juana and Captain Juan Rodríguez de Villafuerte begot and there was born Gabriel de Villafuerte, a mestizo. (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, 98–99.

Ye no ce tliltic piloloc yn oncan tecpan quiyahuac yncapitan yn achtopa omoteneuhque tliltique piloloque = another black was hanged outside the palace, the captain of the earlier mentioned blacks who were hanged. (central Mexico, 1612)
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), 226–227.

cihuapilli Doña Martina chane ateponazco ynantzin in yn Nicolas hernandez tlacayeleltzin [...] ceme oc yehuantin yn inecauhcahuan yn itlaquillohuan yn mihtohua ytzonhuã yztihuã in ye huecauh onemico nican Mexico tenochtitlan yn cẽca otlamamauhtico yn aquin catca huehue tlacayeleltzin cihuacohuatl tlahtocapilli tenochtitlan [...] yn omoteneuh huey yaotachcauh Capitan General = the lady doña Martina, from Ateponazco, the mother of Nicolás Hernández Tlacaelleltzin [...] she is one of the descendants, called the hair and fingernails, of one who lived long ago here in Mexico Tenochtitlan, who was held in great awe, and that was the elder Tlacaellel, the Cihuacoatl, a noble of the royal dynasty of Tenochtitlan (central Mexico, 1613)
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), 238–9.

omocalaquí nican Tlaxcalan Yn Cappitan DnHernando Cortes - ynicuac omo tlan ynin tla llí = o:mocalaqui nican Tlaxcalan in Capn Dn Hernando Cortez ini:cuac o:motlan ini:n tla:lli = Captain Don Hernando Cortés arrived at that time in Tlaxcala, when this land was conquered.
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 57.

innenonotzal, inic quinamicque, inic quītlatlauhtique in capitan in teutl, yoan in ie mochintin teteu = agreement to meet with and address the Captain, the god and all the gods. (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 166.

capitan don hernādo Cortes inic oalmocuepaia mexico = Captain don Hernando Cortés was on the way here, coming back to Mexico. (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 144.

muchin pipiltzitzintin yhuan sequintin huehuey tlaca oquitzatzilique oquilhuique pan pan pa señor capitan ye tapismiquisque ye tapismiquisque = all the children together with some adults shouted to him, telling him "Bread, bread, bread, lord captain, we'll starve, we'll starve!" (Puebla, 1675–1699)
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), 206.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

quinpohuaya in domingotica quimittaz in cacapitanme tlacuilloca[n] capitan ytoca Joan Ycontzin Sant Pablo ychan auh in motlalli capita[n] ypan 68 años. = los contaba los días domingo para ver a los diferentes capitanes. El capitán de los pintores [tlacuillocan] se llama Juan Ycnotzin, vecino de San Pablo y se puso como capitán en el año 68. (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 180–181.

niman íziuhca omotlaztihuetzque pregones inic nochi quexquich Vande ras omozóquê. Auh moztlayoc ipan tonali viernes ic mátlac tlanahui mayo oquiàcocquê yancuica Vandera in tlaneneltin, quinilhuihuia mulatos, oquizqui in Capitan ce tlaneneli itoca Felipe Monson, chilero. Ipan tonali sabado ic caxtoli mayo in oquiàcocque no yuhqui in Tliltiquê [i]nin Vandera, oquizqui in Capitan itoca Lorenzo de Tapia: zan no yancuica oqui àcocquê = inmediatamente, con prontitud, se promulgaron bandos para que se levantasen todas cuantas banderas se pudiera. Al día siguiente, viernes, a los catorce de mayo, levantaron nuevamente banderas los mulatos, nombraron por su Capitán a un mulato llamado Felipe Monson, Chilero. El día sábado, a los quince de mayo, levantaron igualmente su bandera los Negros, nombraron su Capitán a uno llamado Lorenzo de Tapia: nueva exaltación que hicieron los negros (Puebla, 1797)
Anales del Barrio de San Juan del Río; Crónica indígena de la ciudad de Puebla, xiglo XVII, eds. Lidia E. Gómez García, Celia Salazar Exaire, y María Elena Stefanón López (Puebla: Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, BUAP, 2000), 105.