Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

chilpan.

Headword: 
chilpan.
Principal English Translation: 

a type of wasp; also, a medicinal herb (see Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants: 
chīlpān
IPAspelling: 
tʃiːlpɑːn
Frances Karttunen: 

CHĪLPĀN pl: -TIN a type of wasp / avispa (T)
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 52.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Also an herb, known as "Wasps' Nest Herb," that was believed to stop nosebleeds and sometimes induce vomiting or diarrhea as needed for "evacuating choler." The remedy was made by mixing one dram of ground root with a beverage.
The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 140.