matlalin. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

matlalin.

Principal English Translation:

the color dark green (see Karttunen); or, the color blue-green, blue, or turquoise; also, a person's name, whether just by itself or in compounds (e.g. Matlalacatl, Matlalihuitl)

Orthographic Variants:

mātlālin

IPAspelling:

mɑːtɬɑːl

Alonso de Molina:

matlalin. color verde escuro.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 53r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

MĀTLĀL-IN the color dark green / color verde oscuro (M) [(2)Zp.130, 166]. This is attested in Z in MĀTLĀLZAHUA-TL (literally ‘green pox’) and possibly in MĀTLĀLPAN, although the sense of the latter would be obscure from its gloss, which appears to have something to do with lowness of stature. Conceivably it is derived instead from TLĀLPAN ‘on the ground.’
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 139.

Attestations from sources in English:

a blue or dark green color (see Molina; see also Molly Bassett, Nahuat-L Listserv posting, May 31, 2010.)

In the hieroglyphs, matlal appears as a flower, sometimes with a blue or green color, or turquoise blue, as in the glyph for Matlaltepec in the Codex Coatlinchan.
Brígida von Mentz, "Sonido y escritura: Textos en náhuatl en grafías latinas de 1540, pictografías indígenas y la relación entre Estado y escritura," in Lenguas en contacto, procesos de nivelación y lugares de escritura: Variación y contextos de uso, 2017, see 133–134.)

Frances Karttunen follows Molina in defining matlalin as “the color dark green”: “This is attested in Z in matlalzahuatl (literally ‘green pox’) and possibly in Matlalpan, although the sense of the latter would be obscure from this gloss, which appears to have something to do with lowness of stature. Conceivably it is derived instead from tlalpan ‘on the ground'" (139).

But Dibble & Anderson translate matlalin as “blue” in the Florentine [Codex], which notes that "its name comes from nowhere. It is the blossom of an herb, a blossom. This matlalin is blue and a little herb-green. It is very sound, firm, good, of good appearance, fresh green. It is fresh green, very resh green. . . . / acan quizqui in itoca, xihuitl ixochyo, xochitl: inin matlali texotic, ihuan achi quiltic, cenca ixtlapalhui, ixchicactic, cualli, cualnezqui, celic, celic, celpatic. . . ." (11: 240).

The Badianus Ms. cites matlalxochitl (presumably the xochitl referred to in the Florentine?) as an element in a treatment for "heat" in the eyes (pl. 14, p. 218). The footnote for matlalxochitl glosses the term as "blue flower" identifies the plant as "the dayflower, Commelina, of which a number of species are found on the Mexican plateau. A native variant Nahuatl name for it is matlaliztic. Hernández refers to several varieties of matlalxochitl (pp. 383–4), but none of the illustrations resembles Commelina; thus the name must have been applied to several flowers of blue color" (219–20).
Molly Bassett, Nahuat-L listserv posting, May 31, 2010.

ytoca matlal = named Matlal (gender not clear) (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), 134–135. See also 146–147 for another example. This same book has many examples of Matlalihuitl.
Perhaps Matlal is an apocopated version of the longer name.

See our Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs for a personal name glyph from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco that is beautiful blue flower.

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