cemanahuatl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cemanahuatl.

Principal English Translation:

the world, the universe (see also cemanahuac)

Orthographic Variants:

cemanauatl

IPAspelling:

semɑnɑːwɑtɬ

Alonso de Molina:

cemanauatl. el mundo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 15v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CEMANĀHUA-TL The world / el mundo (M) [(4)Cf.84v,88r,99r.101v]. The vowel length pattern and absence of locative -C< -C(O), cf. TLĀLTICOAC-TLI ‘the earth,’ are evidence against a derivation involving CEM ‘entirely’ and ĀNĀHUAC< Ā-TL ‘water’ and NĀHUAC ‘adjacent to.’ A reasonable derivation would be from the nonactive form of M’s cemana ‘to continue something on to the end, to persevere in something.’ In this case, the single M would probably result from a reduction of MM. See CEMMANIYĀN.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 29.

Attestations from sources in English:

Auh yn ochihualloc yn oyocoyalloc cemanahuatl ye caxtoltzonxihuitl ypan c̶a̶x̶t̶o̶l̶p̶o̶h̶u̶a̶l̶ ontzonxivitl ypā chicuexihuitl y̶p̶a̶n̶ ̶y̶e̶p̶o̶h̶u̶a̶l̶xihuitl y̶p̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶m̶e̶x̶i̶h̶u̶i̶t̶l̶ axcan ticate ypan yxiuhtzin tt.º Dios. 1609 años.-
Auh yn omotlalli altepetl Roma ye macuiltzonxihuitl ypā c̶a̶x̶t̶o̶l̶p̶o̶h̶u̶a̶l̶xihuitl ypan yepovalxihuitl ypan ome xihuitl axcan ticate ypan yxiuhtzin tt.º Dios. 1609 años. = And the world was made, was created six thousand, eight hundred and eight years ago. We are now in the year of our Lord God 1609.
And the city of Rome was established two thousand, three hundred and sixty-two years [ago]. We are now in the year of our Lord God 1609. (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, 106–107.

tlaca españa yn españolesme yn huel ixquich yc omocenmanque in ipā cemanahuatl = the people of Spain, the Spaniards who then expanded over all the world (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, 66–67.

Yn iquac yn itzinpeuhyoc. yn ochihualoc yn yocoyalloc cemanahuatl = When the universe was made and created at the very beginning (early seventeenth century, central New Spain)
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), 116–17.

in jiolca in cemanaoatl injc ioltimanj, in mache ioli, in tlatoa in paquj = the nourishment whereby the world remaineth alive, especially liveth, talketh, rejoiceth (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), 36.