ichcatl.

Headword: 
ichcatl.
Principal English Translation: 

unspun cotton or wool; or, a sheep (ganado menor, in the Spanish of late-colonial Mexico)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 28.

IPAspelling: 
itʃkɑtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

ichcatl. algodon, o oueja.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 32r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

ICHCA-TL pl: ICHCAMEH ~ ĪICHCAMEH cotton, wool, or (by extension) sheep / algodón o oveja (M), algodón, lana (T) C /K92/ provides the reduplicated plural as an alternative to the simple –MEH plural.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 92.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

(i)chcatl. cotton, sheep. abs. pl. varies.
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), 219.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Yn huacaxnacatl quiqua çan no yehuatl mocuepaz. Yn pitzonacatl quiqua çan no yehuatl mocuepaz. Yn ychcanacatl quiqua çan no yehuatl mocuepaz yhuan yn ichcaayatl
quiquemi. Yn quanaca q’[ui]qua ça[n] no yehuatl mocuepaz. (Anales de Juan Bautista [ADJB], f. 8r–8v) = those who eat the meat of cows will become cows. Those who eat the meat of pigs will become pigs. Those who eat lamb shall turn into lambs, and likewise those who wear woolen cloaks. Those who eat chicken will become that.”
Ezekiel G. Stear, Nahua Horizons: Writing, Persuasion, and Futurities in Colonial Mexico (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2025), 115–116.

Auh onicelihui elotl, ayotli, yhuan tepitzin onicychtec ychcatl = And I desired corn on the cob and gourds and I stole a little bit of wool.
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), 135.

la compañia de Jesus. yhuan tocayotillo. Teatinos. yhuan ome cidios de estancia moch in cuahuitl quimaniliznequia teopixque ychcame oncan nemizquia yn imaxcahuan. auh ahuel mochiuh ca ye moteilhuico yn amaqumeq̃. yhuan tlalmanalca macehualtin yc macomanq̃ (...) in macehualtin yn quenin huell imaxca tepetl (...) yc pleito mochiuh. testigos mochiuhque yn frayles. yhuan españoles yn intechpa macehualtin chalca (...) la compañia de Jesus. auh ҫaño ic quicauhque inPleito macehualtin amo quitzonquixtihque oncan mocauh yn proseso. amacalco palaҫio = the Company of Jesus, also given the name of Theatines; the religious wanted to take all the forest, and sheep belonging to them would live there. But it could not be done, for the commoners of Amaquemecan and Tlalmanalco made a complaint about it (...) the commoners provided formal proof of how the mountain is really their property (...) the friars and the Spaniards became witnesses for the Chalca commoners (...) the Company of Jesus abandoned [their plans] and withdrew. Because of that the commoners likewise dropped their suit and did not finish it; the papers of the suit were left in the palace archive (central Mexico, 1615)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 302–3.

ichcatl = cotton; but this was extended to describe the European introduction, wool, and then sheep, based on its resemblance to white fluffy cotton
See Sell's comments in 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), 31.

oquihualhuîcaque tlaollí Ychcatl Yhuá mochí ynoccequí achotl = they carried dried maize kernels, cotton, and all other seeds
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 7.

ichcahuipilli = a cotton padded shirt
Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office: Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico (Warsaw: Polish Society for Latin American Studies and Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition, University of Warsaw, 2005), 127.

ichcatilmahtli = cotton cape
Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office: Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico (Warsaw: Polish Society for Latin American Studies and Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition, University of Warsaw, 2005), 191.

auh ça no ihuqui in canin muchiva ichcatl no ytonal = and similarly all the places where cotton was produced were also their rightful due (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 225.

yuhqui ce ichcaconetzintli, inic immac mohuetzititiuh in ocelome, in quautla mimiztin = as if he were a little lamb, as he went to fall into the hands of the jaguars, the forest pumas (early sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 94.

ichcame = sheep (ovejas); said to have been maintained for the benefit of the community and the fiesta of San Bartolomé (possibly 1598, San Francisco Temascalapan, Edo. de México)
Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima, eds., Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 308–311.

y manel yehuatl ychcatl amo yntech huallacia yn mexica ynic cenca motoliniticatca çan yehuatl yn cequintin macehualtzitzinti mexica yn quimoquentiaya yhuan cequintin quimomaxtlatiaya yn amoxtli yn atitlan = At least the cotton never reached the Mexica since the Mexica were very poor. Only some of the poor Mexica commoners clothed themselves, and some wore breechclouts of marsh plants that grew by the water. (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, 118–119.

imachi yehuatli quitemohua ynichca yn itequivh = his nephew looks for the cotton as his tribute duty (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 252–253.

yehuatli quitemohua yn ichcatl yn itequiuh = Looking for cotton is his tribute duty. (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 252–253.

ychcaxochiuh contlaliticac = she has placed her headdress of unspun cotton [on her head].
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 103.

iichcame (the reduplicative plural form), ichcazitzintin (reverential plural), ichcatotontin (diminutive plural), ichcapopol (not defined, but perhaps humble plural?), ichcapipil (not defined, but perhaps plural for offspring?)
Antonio Rincón, Arte mexicana: Vocbulario breve, que solamente contiene todas las dicciones ue en esta arte se traen por exemplos (1595), 5r., 5v.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Auh onicelihui elotl, ayotli, yhuan tepitzin onicychtec ychcatl = Y se me antojó hurtar vnos elotes, y calabaças, y hurté vna poca de lana
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), 134–135.

matlacpohuali cihuaychcame moch pilhuaque = docientas ovejas paridas (San Cristóbal Ecatepec, 1634)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 198–199.

Dios onesmomaquili chiquasenpuali ixcal = Dios me dio ciento y veinte ovejas (Tecamachalco, Puebla, "1548", transl. 1717)
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), 84–85.

nochcauan cepoualli ochiquacen = mis ovejas son veinte seis
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Alcotitlan, Ocotelulco, Tlaxcala, 1596), 316–317.

Nitlanahuatia ynopitzoan macuiltetl niquinomaquilia ynopilhuan yoan nonamic yoan centecpactli nochacahuan = Mando que mis puercos son cinco y se los doy a mis hijos y a mi mujer, y mis ovejas son veinte
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 266-267.

opouali yn ychcatl poregos = cuarenta borregas (Ocotelulco, 1591)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 244-245.

ontetl nochcatzitziua = dos ovejas (Santa Bárbara Maxoxotlan, 1592)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 222–223.

Yn omoquatequique yn oq'[ui]neltocaque yn d[ios] mocuepazque. Yn huacaxnacatl quiqua ça[n] no yehuatl mocuepaz. Yn pitzonacatl quiqua ça[n] no yehuatl mocuepaz. Yn ychcana[ca]tl quiqua ça[n] no yehuatl mocuepaz yhua[n] yn ichcaayatl quiquemi, Yn quanaca q'[ui]qua ça[n] no yehuatl mocuepaz yn ixquich tlein in tlaq[ua]l y ye nica[n] nemi yn q'[ui]nqualia ca moch mocuepazque popolihuizque aocaque yezque = Los que se bautizaron y creyeron en Dios se transformarán. Los que comen carne de vaca, se convertirán en eso. Los que comen carne de puerco, se convertirán en eso. Los que comen carne de borrego se convertirán. Todo lo que es comida de los que aquí viven y la comen, todos se transformarán, serán destruidos, ya nadie existirá (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (México: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 156–157.