teltapach. | Nahuatl Dictionary

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teltapach.

Headword:

teltapach.

Principal English Translation:

the liver (see Molina); might this also have been written teltapachtli, considering that we do find eltapachtli; see also what Karttunen says about elli

Alonso de Molina:

teltapach. el higado.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 96v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

ĒL-LI liver / el hígado (M) In compounds this has a broader sense of ‘internal organs’ and is also associated with emotions, especially strong or unpleasant ones.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 77.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

Gordon Whittaker says that terms relating to elli that start with tel- are references to being brave.
Personal communication, April 19, 2023. (SW)

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