chichihualayotl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

chichihualayotl.

Principal English Translation:

milk, breast milk

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), 214.

Orthographic Variants:

chichiualayotl

IPAspelling:

tʃiːtʃiːwɑlɑːyoːtɬ

Alonso de Molina:

chichiualayotl. leche.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 20r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CHĪCHĪHUALĀYŌ-TL breast milk / su leche (de la mamá) (T) [(1)Tp.129]. M has chichiualayoatl ‘whey.’ See CHĪCHĪHUAL-LI, ĀYŌTL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 48.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

chīchīhualāyōtl; chīchīhualli, ātl, -yōtl.
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), 214.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

oquino qui ynchi chihualatl, y pan Yno quí moquentítoía. yn mique cuetlaxtlí = o:quino:qui in chi:chi:hua:la:tl i:pan in o:quimoque:ntitoia in miqueh cuetlaxtli = he spilled the breast milk onto the one dressed in the dead one's skin
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 40.

yn. theo caxitl, ycainchi chihual ayotl = in teo:caxitl i:ca in chi:chi:huala:yo:tl = the sacred chalice with the milk
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 40.

y n acatl tetotocamítl, ítztetl, chichihualatl, yni na huallo, yhuá; Yncen tlachipínalli chichíhu alayotl = his reed and obsidian pursuit arrow and his breast-milk sorcery, in the company of his dried maize and the dripped breast milk
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 37.

Quilmach vpa icac in chichivalcuavitl quichichi y pipilçitzintli ytzintlã mocacamachalviticate y pipilçitzinti in camac valixicaticac yn chichivalaiotl = it was said that a tree of udders stood there [at which] the babies suckled. Underneath it the babies were opening and closing their mouths; the milk dripped into their mouths.
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 178.

Cuix amo ticmolnamiquilia yn nochichihualayo yc onimitznohuapahuili = perhaps you do not remember my milk, with which I nurtured you (late sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 91.

themes:

Sexuality, Fertility, Reproduction