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iztitl.

Headword: 
iztitl.
Principal English Translation: 

fingernail(s), toenail(s) (see Molina and Karttunen) (we also have an entry for iztetl, which is a variant spelling); this nail can also pertain to an animal, as the glyph for Iztitlan appears to have the claw of an eagle, or other animal

Orthographic Variants: 
iztetl, itztitl
IPAspelling: 
istitɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

iztitl. vña.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 49v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

(I)ZTE-TL fingernail, toenail, a very small unit of length measurement / uña (M), jeme (C) This has a variant form (I)ZTI-TL. Both are often used in metaphors referring to offspring as parts of one’s own body, especially when conventionally paired with TZON-TLI ‘hair.’
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 124.

Attestations from sources in English: 

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

tzontli, itztitl = the hair, the fingernail (a metaphor for a relative, a descendant, a newborn male child) (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), chapter 34, 183.

tzontle, iztitle: oticmjhijovilti, oticmociavilti: otijoculoc in vmeiocan in chicunauhnepanjuhca = O hair, O fingernail, thou hast endured fatigue, thou hast endured weariness; thou wert formed in the place of duality, [which is above] the nine heavens in tiers (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), 183.

tzontle, iztitle = O hair, o fingernail (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), 141.

in mach vel iehoantin in tzoneque, in jzteque in totecujiooan = it seemeth that verily these same who are possessors of hair, who are possessors of fingernails, are our lords (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), 186.

tozti or tizti = (our) fingernails
Michel Launey, An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, translated and adapted by Christopher MacKay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 97.

iztitl = finger nail
ca omitl = it is bone
tetzaoac = hard
oapaoac = firm
chicaoac = strong
tetzcaltic = smoth
patzaoac = depressed
tlatataca = it scratches
ic netataco = with it there is scratching
ic nemomotzolo = with it there is clawing (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), 117.

itztitl = fingernail(s), toenail(s) (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), chapter 34, 183.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

achtopa atotoniltica anquixamizque anquicamapacazque, anquitequilizque in izti = primero le lauen la cara y las manos y la boca con agua caliente y cortalle las uñas (centro de Mexico, s. XVII)
Martín de León, Camino al cielo en lengua mexicana (Mexico: Diego López, 1611), 136v.

IDIEZ morfema: 
iztitl.
IDIEZ traduc. inglés: 
s.o.’s fingernail.
IDIEZ def. náhuatl: 
no. Ce achi tlen nomahpil huan noicxopil iyacapan; quentzin chicahuac huan chipahuac. “Yalhuaya poztecqui ce noizti tlen nomahpil quemman nitlachcueniyaya.
IDIEZ def. español: 
# no. Un poco del dedo de mi mano y el dedo mi pie en su punta está un poco duro y blanco. “Ayer se quebraron las uñas de mi mano porque lavé”.
IDIEZ gramática: 
tlat.
themes: