matlalzahuatl.

Headword:

matlalzahuatl.

Principal English Translation:

a disease involving skin eruptions (see attestations)

IPAspelling:

mɑːtɬɑːlsɑwɑtɬ

Frances Karttunen:

MĀTLĀLZAHUA-TL pox / viruela (Z) [(2)Zp. 130, 166]. This is literally ‘green pox.’ See MĀTLĀL-IN, ZAHUA-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 139.

Attestations from sources in English:

-zahuatl = a suffix that points to cutaneous eruptions
Carlos Viesca Tl, Andrés Aranda C., Mariblanca Ramos de Viesca, "Antecedentes para el estudio de la clasificación de las enfermedades en la medicina náhuatl prehispánica," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, 30 (enero 1999), 189.

During the matlalzahuatl epidemic of 1805 in Cuauhtlalpan, the Nahuas resisted being treated in hospitals, preferring to treat themselves. "These efforts included ritual bloodletting and curative treatments, including massages and herbal remedies, including the árbol del Perú (cinchona). They also, of course, bathed in temazcales."
Farren Yero, "Nahua Responses to the Matlazahuatl [sic] or 'Mystery' Plague of 1805," Ethnohistory 71:1 (January 2024), 99.

themes:

Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine