tetequi. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

tetequi.

Principal English Translation:

to draw and quarter someone; to cut someone into pieces; to cut someone open (transitive); to cut oneself or sacrifice oneself before the deities (intransitive) (see Molina); to scarify someone (see Sahagún, attestations)

IPAspelling:

tehteki

Alonso de Molina:

tetequi. nite. (pret. onitetetec.) desquartizar, hazer pedazos a otro, o sajar a alguno.
tetequi. nino. (pret. oninotetec.) sajarse, o sacrificarse ante los idolos.
tetequi. nitla. despedazar, o cortar algo en muchas partes.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 107r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English:

Niman qujmachiotia in ie achi qualton, mjtoa qujquapaxotla, ijelpan qujtetequj: auh in oc conetontli qujcozcatia hijaqualli = When she was already somewhat grown, they placed a marking on her, it was said; they scarified her hip, they incised her chest; and when she was yet a small child, they provided her with the yaqualli necklace (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 210–1.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

Tlempanoc: Ipan ni 18 tonatiuh zan tlen 1781 Peru tlalli, in caxtilcameh quimicticqueh ce tlayecanquetl inca Túpac Amaru II huan quitehtecqueh teixpan nochin macehualmeh. = Lo que pasó:
Este día 18 pero de 1781 en tierras peruanas, los españoles asesinan al líder inca Túpac Amaru II mediante descuartizamiento público.
Victoriano Cruz de la Cruz, Nahuatlahtolli, 18 Mayo 2013. Náhuatl moderno de la Huasteca del Este.

themes:

Crime, Punishment

Religion (Indigenous)