⚠ Site currently under repair ⚠

Search Issues: Update 2026-08-06

Some of our more complex, multi-field searches (such as the search field on our homepage and Search All Fields) are currently under repair and may not work as expected.

Thank you to all our users who emailed to alert us to the problem! We hope to have it repaired soon.

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

maxalli.

Headword: 
maxalli.
Principal English Translation: 

an earwig (Psalis americana), or something forked (see Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
mɑʃɑlli
Frances Karttunen: 

MAXAL-LI pl: -TIN earwig (Psalis americana), something forked / tijerilla (animalito) (T), horqueta, horcón (Z,X for CUAUHMAXAL-LI) [(1)Tp. 140, (4)Zp. 69, 122, 148, 149]. Despite the vowel length discrepancy, this appears to be related to MĀXTLA-TL ‘breechclout.’ M has maxaltic ‘something divided like a road or the crotch of a tree.’ The absolutive form is attested in the compound CUAUHMAXAL-LI. It is possible that the insect name should take absolutive –IN rather than –TLI. T is ambiguous between the two.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 141.

themes: 
Animals, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, Fish, etc.