tetzonquilitl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

tetzonquilitl.

Principal English Translation:

nettle (see Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants:

tehtzonquilitl

IPAspelling:

tetsonkilitɬ

Frances Karttunen:

TETZONQUIL(I)-TL nettle / mala mujer, ortiga (planta) (Z) [(3)Zp.80,92,220]. In all three attestations Z has a glottal stop in the first syllable, but since nettles characteristically grow along walls and fences, the first element is most likely TETZON-TLI 'stone foundation.' See QUIL(I)-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 237.

Attestations from sources in English:

This herb is pictured and glossed in the Florentine Codex Book 11, folio 134r., with some description on folio 136r. It is green like the axalli herb and salty and crunchy.
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 134r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/134r . Accessed 18 November 2025.

themes:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Plants, Trees, Flora