tamalli.

Headword: 
tamalli.
Principal English Translation: 

a tamale, a type of cornmeal that is wrapped in corn husks and steamed

Orthographic Variants: 
tlamalli, tammalli, tamali
IPAspelling: 
tɑmɑlli
Alonso de Molina: 

tamalli. pan de mayz embuelto en hojas y cozido en olla.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 90v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TAMAL-LI bread made of steamed cornmeal, tamale / pan de maíz envuelto en hojas y cocido en olla (M) By extension TAMAL-LI often refers to soft, unstructured things.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 214.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

tamal (232)

Attestations from sources in English: 

See an image that represents tamalli in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

quatecujcujlli tamalli, iztac tlatzincujtl, iztac tetamalli tlatzincujtl, chichiltic quatecujcujlli tamalli, nexiotamalli quatecujcujlli, tamalatl quauhnextli, totolnacaqujmjlli xocco tlapaoaxtli, anoço tlatentli, nacatlaoio tamalli chilcozio: cihoatotoli tlatleoatzalli, çolin tlatleoatzalli = White tamales with beans forming a sea shell on top; white tamales with maize grains thrown in; hard, white tamales with grains of maize thrown in; red tamales with beans forming a sea shell on top; tamales made of a dough of maize softened in lime, with beans forming a sea shell on top; tamales of maize softened in wood ashes; turkey pasty cooked in a pot, or sprinkled with seeds; tamales of meat cooked with maize and yellow chili; roast turkey hen; roast quail. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 37.

Injc castolli onnaui capitulo: intechpa tlatoa, in tlaxcalnamacaque: in tamalli, anoço castillan tamalli quinamaca. = Nineteenth Chapter, which telleth of the sellers of tortillas [and of] tamales, or of those who sell wheaten bread. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 69.

yoan in qujquazque tamalli, xocotamalli chichiltic = and the tamales which they ate were fruit tamales, red (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 70.

ynjn mjmjltic in tammalli, tzoalli ynjc tlailacatzolli, qujcẽmana ỹ in tamalli in teupan. (sixteenth century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 70.

yn tamalli mopatla in cacauatl = A tamale is exchanged for a cacao bean (Tlaxcala, 1545)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 34, 210–211.

tamalnamacac in itequiuh iey tomi = The tamale sellers' tax is 3 tomines (Coyoacan, mid-sixteenth century)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 25, 138–139.

tamalli cuechiuhqui = ground up tamales; vcuiltamali, ocuiltamali = worm tamales; michpiltamali = fish tamales. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 202, 203.

tzintamaltzontli = hair of buttocks (also called tzintzontli, without the added -tamal- element) (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 137.

Entered Spanish as tamal and English as tamale (the pronunciation of tamale approximating the original Nahuatl. (SW)

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

uactoctlamal = tamales secos
Nuestro pesar, nuestra aflicción / tunetuliniliz, tucucuca; Memorias en lengua náhuatl enviadas a Felipe II por indígenas del Valle de Guatemala hacia 1572, introduction by Cristopher H. Lutz, paleography and translation by Karen Dakin (México: UNAM and Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 1996, 68–69.

themes: 
Food, Eating, Cooking