mountain lion, cougar, or a wild cat; also, a name given to a child
mimniztin = mountain lions (plural)
In the ongoing discussion of cat terms Kier Salmon brings up the subject of Nahuatl *ocelotl*. The latter (*o:ce:lo:tl*) is actually 'jaguar' par excellence, whereas *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl *(literally, 'semi-jaguar') is 'ocelot'. I have no idea why Dibble and Anderson (or Anderson and Dibble) decided to continue translating plain *o:ce:lo:tl* simply as 'ocelot', which is quite a misleading definition. The zoologist they consulted, Stephen Durrant, recommended 'jaguar' over their 'ocelot' (Florentine Codex, Bk. 11, 1963, p. 1, fn. 2), but they stuck to their translation. As a result, they rendered both *o:ce:lo:tl* and *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl* as "ocelot".
The indigenous consultants for the Florentine Codex descriptions, however, clearly regarded the *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl*, which they also named the * tla'comiztli* ('semi-puma'), as a separate animal, not merely a different kind of *o:ce:lo:tl*, as the following passage (FC 11: 3) implies:
We don't know whether Aztec *o'o:ce:lo'* only wore jaguar skins, or whether some of them were running around in ocelot uniforms. The evidence strongly favours a primary association with jaguars, for cultic, cosmological and ideological reasons. Thus, for practical purposes, the translation "jaguar warriors" is still okay.
quitzonaya yn teponaztlí- Yhuá cololí; cuauhcoyolí, yhuá hoccequine Yaotlatquítl yca miec tzatziliztli, tla huelecayo tíca cayȗh, Ozelomê mimiztín = quitzonaya in tepona:ztli i:hua:n coyoli, cuauhcoyolin, i:hua:n oc cequi:ne ya:o:tlatquitl i:ca miec tzahtziliztli, tlahue:lehcayo:tica ca iuh o:celo: meh, mimi:ztin = they beat the lateral log drum and trumpets, wooden bells, along with other war property, with much furious shouting, like coyotes, jaguars, and mountain lions.
yn alcalde mayor quinechicozque mimistin = the alcalde mayor ordered that cats be rounded up
yuhqui ce ichcaconetzintli, inic immac mohuetzititiuh in ocelome, in quautla mimiztin = as if he were a little lamb, as he went to fall into the hands of the jaguars, the forest pumas (early sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
mizehualtilmahtli = mountain lion or puma skin cape
Inimequez nahualtin tlanonotzalo quemen mocuepa quemanian de yolcatl, de chichi, de miztli, de cuanaca, o nozo mocuepa in texcaltin. = Cuentan que estos nahuales a veces se vuelven animales--perros, gatos, gallinas--o se vuelven peñascos. (s. XX, Milpa Alta)