chichina. | Nahuatl Dictionary

chichina.

Headword:

chichina.

Principal English Translation:

to suck something or to inhale smoke (literally, to take in the smoke of incense with pipes); to receive liquid or to soak up something (see Molina and Karttunen)

IPAspelling:

tʃitʃiːnɑ

Alonso de Molina:

chichina. nitla. (pret. onitlachichin.) chupar algo, o tomar sahumerio de olores con cañas.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 19v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

chichina qui. (pret. oquichichin.) rezumarse la vasija embeuiendose enella algun licor lo mesmo se dize de la esponja, o de cosa semejante que embeue en si algun licor.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 19v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CHICHĪN(A) vt to soak something up, to suck something in, to smoke something / chupar algo, o tomar sahumerio de olores con cañas (M), rezumarse la vasija embebiéndose en ella algún licor.... lo mismo se dice de la esponja o de cosa semejante que embebe en si algún licor (M) PĀLCHICHĪNALŌ nonact. PĀL-CHICHĪN(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 49.

Update from errata list: The entry for chichi:n(a) is glossed, following Molina, as being to suck something up and also to smoke something. But in the Florentine Codex 6:2), there is an attestation with a saltillo at the end of the first syllable with the sense of “to smoke.” So perhaps Molina conflates two different verbs: chihchina from chinoa: or ihchinoa: “to burn” and chichi:na “to soak something up.” Does Molina’s gloss “tomar sahumerio de olores con cañas” refer to sucking or burning?

Attestations from sources in English:

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

chichina (verb) = to snuff up, imbibe, or suck up, especially the odors of burning incense, through a tube
Daniel Garrison Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry: Containing the Nahuatl Text of XXVII Ancient Mexican Poems (1887), 152.

totexipal tlapachichina = Our lips: They suck. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 256.

In popocatiuh, in chichinauhtiuh. Inin tlatolli, itechpa mitoaya: in aquin cenca chicaoac tlatolli ic tenonotza, ioan tecoco tlatolli = He is smoking, he is sizzling. This was said of the person who reprimanded others in very harsh words, words that stung.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 160–161.

IDIEZ morfema:

chichīna.

IDIEZ traduc. inglés:

to suck the juice from s.t.

IDIEZ def. náhuatl:

nic. Macehualli, tecuani zo tlapiyalli quicamatlalia ce tlamantli huan quiquixtilia iayo huan iahhuiacca. "Angelica quicua ce alaxox, quichichina iayo huan ipachcho quiquixtia. "

IDIEZ def. español:

A. nic. Una persona y un animal domestico pone algo en su boca y lo saca su jugo. “Angelica come una naranja, chopa su jugo y su cascara lo saca”. B. sacarle jugo algo

IDIEZ gramática:

tlach2.

themes:

Fire, Tobacco, Incense

Audio for Headword:

chichīna

tlahtolli:

chichīna

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