⚠ 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.

pochehua.

Headword: 
pochehua.
Principal English Translation: 

to get smoky, to smoke something, or to fill something with smoke (Karttunen), such as a house or a wall (Molina); or, for grains/maize/bread to get overcooked, overheated (Molina)

Orthographic Variants: 
pocheua, puchehua
IPAspelling: 
poːtʃeːwɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

pocheua. (pret. opocheuac.) ahumarse alguna casa o pared, o cosas semejantes, o abochornarse los panes.
pocheua. nitla. (pret. onitlapocheuh.) ahumar algo desta manera.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 82v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

pucheua. ni. (pret. onipucheuac.) pararse de color de cosa ahumada.
pucheua. nitla. (pret. onitlapucheuh.) ahumar algo desta manera.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 83v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

abochornarse las miesses [como maíces], o secarse por falta de agua. tonalhuaqui. mo, tonalhuia. pocheua.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1555, part 1, Spanish to Nahuatl, f. 1v.

Frances Karttunen: 

PŌCHĒHU(A) vrefl,vt to get smoky; to smoke something, to fill something with smoke / se ahuma (T), ahumar algo (M) [(6)Tp.156,199]. M also has intransitive pocheua, preterit formed with -C, 'for a house to fill up with smoke, for bread to scorch.' See PŌC-TLI, ĒHU(A).

PŌCHĒHUILIĀ applic. PŌCHĒHU(A).

PŌCHĒHUALŌ nonact. PŌCHĒHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 199–200.

themes: 
Food, Eating, Cooking