cuitlatl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cuitlatl.

Principal English Translation:

excrement, excretion, or excrescence (see attestations); algae on the surface of lakes and lagoons was called acuitlatl and tecuitlatl, terms that shed some light on the breadth of thinking about cuitlatl (SW)

Orthographic Variants:

tlacacujtlatl, tlacacuitlatl

IPAspelling:

kwitɬɑtɬ

Alonso de Molina:

cuitlatl. mierda.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 27v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

CUITL(A)-TL excrement, residue, excrescence /mierda (M), excremento, fiemo, inmundicia, residuo, llaga, tumor, absceso (S) By extension this has the sense of ‘back, rump, behind’ in compounds.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 73–74.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

çan iconecuitl ynic onmoxaxauh yn quimixteyayahualti = he painted himself only with his child's excrement as he painted circles about his eyes (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. 1, 82–83.

auh yn culhuaque yn quinyollotillito ynmomoz mexica cuitlatl poxacuayhuitl yc enca motlaocoltihque in Mexica = ...and the Culhuaque provided the Mexica with a heart for their altar. It was of excrement and whippoorwill feathers, where the Mexica were saddened... (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, 30–31.

quiyollotizq yn inteocal auh yahq yn titlanti cuitlatl yn quiyollotito = ...they will make a heart for their temple. And the messengers went; with excrement they went to make a heart. (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. 1, 224, 225.

Oppa icuitl quiqua. Itechpa mitoa: in aquin tla itla oquitemacac, azo itla qualoni, anozo tilmatli: ye no ceppa quitlani = He eats his excrement over again. This is said if someone gives something to another, such as food or a cape. Then he asks for it back. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 102–103.

Zazan tleino, ye oalquiza xiccui moteuh. Cuitlatl. = What is it that comes out and now you have your stone? Excrement. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 133–134.

tlacacujtlatl (tlacacuitlatl) = human excrement (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, 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), 138.

nextamalcujtlatic (nextamalcuitlatic) = like doughy excrement (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, 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), 132.

cujx nolujl, cujx nomaceoal in cujtlatitlan, in tlaҫultitlan in tinechmanjlia? in petlapan, in jcpalpan tinechmotlalilia = It is perhaps my desert, my merit that thou takest me from the excrement, from the filth, that thou placest me on the reed mat, on the reed seat (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), 41.

IDIEZ morfema:

cuitlatl.

IDIEZ traduc. inglés:

1. excrement. 2. root of CUITLAPĀN and CUITLAHUIĀ. s.o. or an animal’s back.

IDIEZ def. náhuatl:

1. Tlen quixixa macehualli, tecuani zo tlapiyalli. “Leobardo panmoquetzqui cuitlatl pampa axquiittac. ” 2. CUITLAPĀN huan CUITLAHUIĀ iyollo. Ce achi iican macehualli, tecuani zo tlapiyalli tlen eltoc zan tlatlahco tlen itzinquechtlan huan iquechcuayo.

IDIEZ gramática:

tlat.