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cuauhtematlatl.

Headword: 
cuauhtematlatl.
Principal English Translation: 

an ad hoc term invented to describe a catapult; literally, wooden sling for throwing stones (16th c., central Mexico)
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), 231.

Orthographic Variants: 
quauhtematlatl
Alonso de Molina: 

quauhtematlatl. trabuco.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 87r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

combining form quauhtemātla-. quahuitl, temātlatl. 231

Attestations from sources in English: 

españoles quitlalique quauhtematlatl, inic quinpoiomictizquia in tlatilulca = the Spaniards installed a catapult with which they were going to kill the Tlatelolca by stealth
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 230.

in iehoan Españoles, quitlalique in quauhtematlatl in mumuzticpac, inic quintepachosque in macevatlin = those Spaniards installed a catapult on top of an altar platform with which to hurl stones at the people (Tlatelolco, 1550–80)
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), 193.

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