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comitl.

Headword: 
comitl.
Principal English Translation: 

earthenware vessel, pottery jug; in Nahuatl hieroglyphs, the jug can provide the phonetic "co" or "con"

Orthographic Variants: 
contli, comatl
IPAspelling: 
koːmitɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

comitl. olla, o barril de barro. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 24r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

CŌMI-TL Pl: CŌMIH; possessed form; -CŌN pot / olla o barril de barro (M) X has a variant CŌN-TLI. There is a related form COM(A)-TL that differs in final vowel and also in vowel length in the initial syllable and which occurs in some but not all compounds with the same sense as CŌM(I)-TL. See COM(A)-TL. Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 41.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

comitl = pot
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), 215.

Attestations from sources in English: 

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

acaquaujtl, acaiietl, iietlalli, vel ocotzoio, ioan xochiocotzotl, ioan iiecaxitl, ioan apantlecaxitl, ioã tlequaztli, ioan apaztli, ioan xoctli, ioan atlalilcomjtl = smoking tubes, pipes, and cigars, [some] quite resinous and aromatic; and tobacco bowls; and large pottery braziers and hearths, and earthen basins, and pots, and jars for storing water (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, 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, 1951), 69.

tepozcomitl tepitzin = a small iron pot (Saltillo, 1627)
Leslie S. Offutt, "Levels of Acculturation in Northeastern New Spain; San Esteban Testaments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 22 (1992), 409–443, see page 428–429.

ma nimitznomaquilli cencomitl nicpia nochalchiuh = let me give you the entire jar of green stones that I keep (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, 50–51.

conanjlia yn iiollo, contlalitiuj comjc, tlatexoujlli motocaiotia, mixcomjtl = they seized his heart; they placed it in a vessel, painted blue, named the cloud vessel (central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 83.

anoҫo tecomjc, tecaxic, tetopco, tepetlacalco timaiaviz: tocontzacutiaz, tontetzotzonaloz = Or when thou wilt remove from one's olla, one's bowl, one's coffer, one's reed chest, thou wilt be imprisoned, thou wilt be stoned (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), 70.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

yoan centetl huei comitl = y una olla grande (San Juan Teotihuacan, 1563)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 144–145.

ynocasa nauheteli tepozçoque yua petlatli yuan xicalli aço comitli casitli mochi quipiyazque ynopiltzin y[n] yteyotica nonami ytoca Elena Acuechcuetzin = las cuatro cajas con sus cerradueras y los petates y ollas y una silla, mando que las tengan mis hijos y mi mujer Elena Aquechquehtzin y las jícaras (Tizatlan, Tlaxcala, 1599)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 316–317.

themes: 
Ceramics, Pottery
Food, Eating, Cooking