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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.
adolescent girl or young woman; maiden, virgin; daughter
See an image that represents ichpochtli in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
iectli cioatl timalli cioatl, chipaoac, qualnezqui mimati, teconeuh, teichpuch haquequelli = The good woman [is] modest, pure, pleasing of appearance, honest. [She is] one's daughter [female speaking] --one's daughter [male speaking]. She is not the subject of ridicule. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
In qualli yiollo ichpuchtli mocuiliani, motlaçotlani, mopiani, mopixqui, iecnemilice, qualnemilice, iollochipaoac, mopia, momaluia motlaçotla, hamo quequeloloani = The virtuous maiden [is] reserved, jealous of her virtue, chaste, continent, just, pious, pure of heart. She guards herself, guards her honor; she is jealous of her virtue; [she is] not to be ridiculed. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Auh ome oncate nochpochhua amo no tle vellonca quitozque iehica ca nonqua quintlamacatia yn intaƫin catca = And I have two daughters; they may say nothing either, because their late father has given them something separately. (Coyoacan 1548)
yoan in ie ichpupuchchicacti = and maidens recently matured (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
auh in cioa ichpopuchti, moxaoaia, mopotonjaia tlapaliujtica (auh in cioa ichpopuchti moxaoaia, mopotoniaia tlapuliuitica) = And the young women had painted their faces and were arrayed in red feathers
auh in iehoantin ichpopuchti, cenca vel pialoia, ynjc aiac qujmjxeleuiz, ynjc aiac qujncamanalhuiz = And these girls were very well guarded, that none might covet them, nor ravish them
niman quinmacaque imichpuchoan = then they gave them their daughters
The word did not originally have the connotation of "virgin" -- it just meant adolescent girl or young woman.
nohipo = my daughter
(San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1731)
Often used to speak about the Virgin Mary, usually with reverentials.
-chpoch = daughter (nochpoch, nopox, noxpos, nospo, etc = my daughter; the final -ch was probably weakened to an -sh sound in speech, producing some of these variants ending in -x, -s, and so on
-chpochton = little daughter (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1695)
nopos, nospos = my daughter (deviant spelling, San Luis, 1699) (Mexico, sixteenth-century)
nehual notoca Maria Micaela yxpocatl : prenSipala : yhuan CaSigue = I named Maria Micaela, unmarried woman, prinicpala and cacique. (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1762)
noxpochto = my little daughter (San Pedro Tototepec, Toluca Valley, 1733, 1695)
nohipo = my daughter
(San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1731)
niman yc quinmamaltiaya y çeçeme ychpupuchti = then they had each of the maidens carry [the ears of maize] on their backs (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
ichpuchtli / tzava / monequi. atezi. momachtia yq’tiliztlj = Maiden: it is required that she spin. She does not grind maize. She learns to weave. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
yn tlaçotlanextzintli in mochpochxillantzinco = the precious light that is in your maidenly womb (early seventeenth century, Central Mexico)
auh in iquac omotlacachiuili çan ie ichpuchtli = and when she had given birth, she was a maiden then (early seventeenth century, Central Mexico)
in ye telpuchtli noma motetecomolhuia, anozo mitzpepetzinalhuia: auh in ye ichpuchtli, noma icoconeuh yetinemi, noma mozoquitlaxcalhuia = a young man [who] takes delight in digging holes with pieces of stone or painting himself up, or a young woman who still carries around her dolls and makes mud tortillas
ichpochtli & telpochtli = bride and groom in seventeenth-century in parish records of San Bartolomé Capulhuac (also spelled Acapulhuac and Capolohuac) on microfilm in the Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City.
Sabado a XV de março de 1567 a[ñ]os yq[ua]c tianq[ui]zco tzatzivac in tlacalaquilli inic teq'[ui]tizque in telpochtli yn ichpochtli auh yn iq[ua]c omocac [Tachado: niman / auh yn] nima[n] cecentetl petiçio[n] mochiuh ynic tlacuepaloc [Entre renglones: ynauhca[n]paixti]. Auh yn amatl tianq[ui]zco q'[ui]pouhque yhua[n] tlaxilacalpa[n] mopouhtia yn inauhca[n]paixti etc. = Sábado a 15 de marzo de 1567 años, entonces en el mercado se pregonó el tributo, tributarán los jóvenes y las doncellas. Y cuando se escuchó, luego las cuatro parcialidades [nauhcampaixti] hicieron cada una, una petición para contradecirla. Y el documento fue leído en el mercado y se fue leyendo por los barrios [tlaxilacalli] de las cuatro parcialidades, etc. (ca. 1582, Mexico City)
cihua:pil = ichpochtli
Tic ne co:jtan nemi se cua:huit uan ita:n nemi se gala:ntzin cihu:pil. = En el campo esta: un a:rbol y debajo esta: una bonita muchacha. (Sonsonate, El Salvador, Nahuat or Pipil, s. XX)