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octacatl.

Headword: 
octacatl.
Principal English Translation: 

a measuring rod; a model, or a standard

IPAspelling: 
oktɑkɑtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

octacatl. vara de medir, o dechado.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 75v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

In tlauilli, in ocotl, in machiotl, in octacatl, in coyaoac tezcatl: mixpan nicmana. Inin tlatolli iechpa mitoaya: in aquin tecutlatoaya, in iuicpa maceoalli, in cenca qualli tlatolli iixpan = I set before you a light, a torch, a model, a measuring rod, a great mirror. This phrase was said of a lord who spoke to the people and placed before them excellent words. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 150–151.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Esto puede ser una medida "de longitud" (citando a Siméon); "medida modelo de longitud" (Brinton), o una "vara lineal, en mexicano" (Orozco y Berra). Pero Castilla cree que "el octácatl era simplemente el patróan objetivado de cualesquiera de las medidas de longitud usuales y no una en particular."
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Unidades nahuas de medida," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 195–223, ver página 222.

el matlacxocpallatamachihualoni = diez huellas "que Brinton relaciona con el octácatl"
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Unidades nahuas de medida," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 195–223, ver página 221.

themes: 
Measurements, Quantities