nochtli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

nochtli.

Principal English Translation:

the fruit of the prickly pear cactus (tuna in Spanish)
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 227.

IPAspelling:

noːtʃtɬi

Alonso de Molina:

nochtli. tuna, fruta conocida.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 72v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

NŌCH-TLI fruit of the prickly pear cactus / tuna, fruta conocida (M) [(1)Tp168]. See NOHPAL-LI.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 172.

Attestations from sources in English:

yn yancuican neci nochtli in centetl cacauatl quinamiqui in ihquac vel onezqui Hontetl yn nochtli = A newly picked prickly pear cactus fruit is equivalent to one cacao bean, when fully ripe two cactus fruit (for a cacao bean)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 34, 210–211.

In place names, "noch" can refer to the cactus or the fruit of the cactus. For instance, Tenōchtitlan can be translated "By the Rock Cactus."
Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 111.

themes:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Plants, Trees, Flora