a person of noble lineage; or, a child
NOBLE
In the Ordenanzas de Cuauhtinchan, the term pilli is distinguished from macehualli, showing social hierarchical relationships. After contact, Spanish colonizers tried hard to suppress the earlier practice of rulers staying in office many years, although election records show that it happened all the time. In the Ordenanzas, we see the explanation that, when rulers stayed in office a long time, they would feel self-important, and they would come to feel that they were of the pilli class and not the macehualli class that they might well come from (e.g. the tequitlato, a lower-level community officer). (Puebla, sixteenth century)
xillomantzin tlahtohuani culhuacan oncan tlacat aculmiztli çan pilli çan hualla yn nican nemico tlatilolco = Xilomantzin, ruler of Culhuacan, took and asked for her, whence was born Acolmiztli, only a nobleman. He just came here to live in Tlatelolco. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
pipiltin (plural)
theuc totolim, ca huey Pillí, cuali Eztlí = Theuctotolim, cah hue:i pilli, cualli eztli = Teuctotolin, who was a great noble of good blood.
Pipiltin Mexíca yei xiquípillí = twenty-four thousand Mexica nobles
Ypan onpoali yhuá chi come xihuitl oazico yn Pilli. Xolotl, ohuallaque hoc yeintin tlatoque = In the forty and seventh year after the noble Xolotl arrived, another three rulers came.
Pili is used in Techialoyan manuscripts in unlikely ways, such as to refer to the viceroy don Antonio de Mendoza. Huey pili is also seen in this genre of manuscripts as a descriptor for various high nobles of prehispanic times.
Pilli and pipiltin are both found linked with tlatoani (tlatuani in the Nahuatl document) in a narrative of migration that was translated in the second half of the eighteenth century.
CHILD
in tepiltzin tlaçopilli, calitic cunetl chanecaconetl teuiotica tepiltzin
Ichtacaconetl, calpan pilli, calpan conetl, mecaconetl mecapilli = One's child; [that is,] the legitimate child, the child born within the household, the child born within the habitation, the spiritually acceptable child.(central Mexico, sixteenth century).
Ichtacaconetl, calpan pilli, cakpan conetl, mecaconetl mecapilli = The secret child, the bastard; the bastard, the child of a slave, the slave's child.
ayac ypilçin = she has no children (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
muchin pipiltzitzintin yhuan sequintin huehuey tlaca oquitzatzilique oquilhuique pan pan pa señor capitan ye tapismiquisque ye tapismiquisque = all the children together with some adults shouted to him, telling him "Bread, bread, bread, lord captain, we'll starve, we'll starve!" (Puebla, 1675–1699)
absolutive reverential means child and is genderless (44–45); form without reverential always means male noble (46–47)
At times we find an unusual h before an initial i: hitlaçopiltzin = his precious son (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1693)
-piltzin = son
nopihua has been seen for nopilhuan in Toluca
also spelled: pili
topilhuan = our children
The possessed form just about always means children rather than nobles.
oquitemacaya polboz ynic ynca omocacayahua pipiltoton = He gave out powders by means of which he took advantage of small children
piltõtli. maviltia. tlaololoa. tzatzi. = Small child [man's or woman's]: It amuses itself, it makes mud balls, it cries out.
piltzintli. ayamo tlacaq’. ayamo quimati = Child [man’s or woman’s]: It does not yet understand, it knows nothing yet
Ioan mitoaya, in aquin pilli, tlazopilli: motenoaya: tecozqui, tequetzal, tepiltzin = And nobles and sons of nobles were called: Someone's necklace, someone's quetzal-feather plumage; someone's son.
NOBLE / PRINCIPAL
nezqui ynitoca Juan Ximenez pilli nican chaneh cibdad ytech pohui yn altepetl ocotelulco = comparecio el nombrado Juan Jimenez noble, vive aqui en la ciudad pertenece al pueblo de ocotelulco (Tlaxcala, 1560)
nipinlli nichane nican çiudad tetzcuco = soy un pilli residente en la ciudad de Tetzcuco. (Tetzcoco, 1587)
…nopiltzin noueyo quitoua yn chichimeca yn tepilhuan y mota motepeuh mamotocayoti = Mi pila, mi huello, dicen los tepilhuan chichimeca, tu padre, tu conquistador: que se nombre. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Auh inic moyecchivaz yn ynic vel mochivaz yz cecexiuhtica omentin regidorme ixquetzalozque quimocuitlavizque ypan tlatozque y yevantin yn neҫizque y amo pipiltin = Y para que esto se haga correctamente, para que se realice bien, cada año se encargará a dos regidores para cuidar y averiguar sobre los que aparezcan que no son pillis. (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla, s. XVI)
auh in tlaqualitoloca (f. 7 v.) vel quichiva yn itequiuh ҫa oc no hevan tepixcatizque yn occe xivitl ҫan oncan tlantiez ynic amo moveynequizque ynic amo mopilitozque ca macevaltin no yvan ynic amo tecueҫozque ynic amo tlacomonizque = Y si se habla bien de ellos, si realizan bien su trabajo otra vez, ellos serán tepixque, un año más solamente, con lo cual terminarán, para que no se sientan importantes, para que no digan que son pillis, puesto que son macehuales; y también para que no ocasionen pena a alguien, para que no alboroten a la gente (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla, s. XVI)
yn itoca don Pasqual Ramirez amo pili çan inahuac homoscalti teopixque moquixtianochichihua = el llamado don Pascual Ramírez, que no era pilli, se había criado con los sacerdotes, se vestía como cristiano (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
mochiuh gobernador Quiahuiztlan yn itoca don Pasqual Ramirrez chane San Bartasar Tlapitzahuacan amo pili yn itech hoquizqui çan itlamozcalti totatzin frey Agostin de Artiaga = fue gobernador el llamado don Pascual Ramírez, de Quiahuiztlan, habitante de San Baltazar Tlapitzahuacan. No era descendiente de pilli, sólo era criado de nuestro padre fray Agustín de Arteaga. (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
omo tlasentequilili in to huei tlatocasin pili, Conde de monterey = nuestro gran Señor el Virrey, Conde de Monterrey (Estado de Hidalgo, ca. 1722?)
totlaçopiltzin señor Naldas = nuestro querido pilli señor Naldas (Tepotzotlan, 1631)
yn huey pili ça notachcocoltzin Yxtlixuchitl tlalmaceuhqui = nuestro bisabuelo, el gran señor Ixtilxochitl, que lo conquistó y ganó (Zempoala, "1610", but probably Techialoyan -related)
don Juan Fernandez pili nican chane Tlaxcalla pohuia ypan cabecera Quiyahuiztlan = don Juan Fernández, pili, vecino de aquí de Tlaxcala, perteneciente a la cabecera de Quiahuiztlan (Coyoacan, 1607)
niquitepanohua Tenanco pipiltin = me alindo con los piles de Tenango (Tizatlan, Tlaxcala, 1595)
testicome pimpiltin = los testigos, que son los principales (San Juan Teotihuacan, 1563)
ometin pipiltin = dos principales (San Bartolomé, 1585)
pillotl = nobleza (ca. 1582, México)
tiregidoresme yn timatlactin tomome yhuan tehuantin timochintin yn tipipiltin yn taltepehuaque Mexico = nosotros los pillis de cabildo y a los doce que somos regidores todos nosotros que somos pillis poseedores del pueblo de México (Centro de Mexico, 1573)
HIJO / HIJA
nopiluantzitziuan omen Elenan Tozpetlacal Maria Ynteicuitzin mamacuilpoualli quicuizque = mis hijas que son dos, Elena Tospetlacatl [y] María Intecuitzin, que han de coger a ciento
ne topila:uan = la familia
pila:huan = hijos