chicuatli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

chicuatli.

Principal English Translation:

a barn owl (see Molina); the term mimics the bird's call (see Hunn, attestations); Anderson and Dibble say that the chicuatli is a smaller owl that screeches (see Florentine Codex, Book V)

Orthographic Variants:

chiquatli

Alonso de Molina:

chiquatli. lechuza.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 21r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CHĪCUAH-TLI pl: -MEH barn owl / lechuza (M) [(1)Cf.5r,(1)Rp.74,(1)Tp.124]. In the attestation in T the vowel of the first syllable is specifically marked short, but C marks it long.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 50.

Attestations from sources in English:

CHĪCUAH-TLI, Barn Owl (Tyto alba) [FC: 46 Chiquatli] “It has thick feathers, eyes like spindle whorls, a curved bill. It is unkempt, fluffy. Its feathers are ashen, blotched like a quail’s. It is round-headed, stubby-tailed, round-winged. The eyes shine by night; they are weak by day. It is a night traveler which sees at night; it feeds, it lives by hunting…. It eats mice [and] lizards. It claws one.” No doubt this is the Barn Owl. The Codex lists as synonyms TAPAL-CATZOTZON-QUI [FC: 47 Tapalcatzotzonqui: “It is the same as the Barn Owl. It is named tapalcatzotzonqui because its call is as if one struck pot sherds or rattled them. Thus does it sound.”]. See also CHĪCH-TLI [FC: 47 Chichtli] “is the same as the Barn Owl.” The first synonym is a neat characterization of a common Barn Owl vocalization.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, 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, 1963); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.

Cuix ticneltoca in temictli in Peyotl, Ololiuhqui, Tletl, Tecolotl, Chiquatli. coatl nozo itla oc centlamantli quimoteotiaya in mocolhuan huehuetque. = Do you believe in dreams, peyote, ololiuhqui, fire, owls, barn owls, snakes or some other thing your grandfathers the ancients used to worship?
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 91.

Another name for the barn or screech owl is chichtli according to Sahagún.
Florentine Codex (1950–1982), Book 11, 47.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

Cuix ticneltoca in temictli in Peyotl, Ololiuhqui, Tletl, Tecolotl, Chiquatli. coatl nozo itla oc centlamantli quimoteotiaya in mocolhuan huehuetque. = As creydo en sueños, en el Peyote, Ololiuque, en el fuego, en los Buhos, Lechusas, ò Culebras, &c. O en otros abusos que tuvieron tus antepasados.
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 90–91.

Cuix oticmotetzahui, in chiquauhtli, in chixtli, in yepatl? = Tubiste aguero en el chiqualote, y en un cierto paxaro griton, y en el Zorrillo?
Antonio Vázquez Gastelu, Arte de lengua mexicana (Puebla de los Angeles, México: Imprenta Nueva de Diego Fernández de León, 1689), 34r.

themes:

Animals, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, Fish, etc.

Sensory Perception (sound, smell, etc.)