icnooquichtli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

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icnooquichtli.

Headword:

icnooquichtli.

Principal English Translation:

a widower (literally, unfortunate/orphaned man; with the added connotation of his being worthy of compassion) (see Molina)

Orthographic Variants:

icnōoquichtli

IPAspelling:

iknoːokitʃtɬi

Alonso de Molina:

icno oquichtli. biudo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 33r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

(I)CNŌOQUICH-TLI bachelor, widower / viudo (M), solterón, viudo (T)[(1)Tp. 128]. M writes the two elements as separate words, while T writes them solid and reduces the sequence ŌO to Ō. See (I)CNŌ-TL, OQUICH-TLI.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 94.

Attestations from sources in English:

yz ca oc ce vecapa ycauh y yaotl ytoca ytoca [sic] nacxitl- ça ycnovquichtl- onmoçivauhtica ya matlacpovally y mic yçivauh = Here is in addition the distant younger sibling [i.e. cousin] of Yaotl, named Nacxitl. He is just a widower. He had married; 200 days ago his wife died. (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), 170–173.

As time passed since a man had become a widower, he was increasingly seen as "formerly married," not necessarily someone needing compassion.
Fray Alonso de Molina, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM, ed. and trans., Barry D. Sell (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 2002), 54.