Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
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Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
a weapon, a projectile, a type of arrow (see Molina), perhaps a spear, javelin, lance, or harpoon; the tlacochtli featured in the Florentine Codex (Book 6, f. 33v.) shows it to be as tall as the man holding it; this term also appears as a man's name (rendered Tlacochin or Tlacochtzin)
See an image that represents tlacochtli in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
auh yn mitl yn mitohua yn tlacochtli. yn motocayotia tlatzontectli. quicuitlalpique. ypā motlallique yn atlan ynic hualpanoque = And the arrows, called tlacochtli, named tlatzontectli, they bound to their waists and rested on them as they swam across (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
tlacochtli = spear;
tlacochtli xochitl = spear flowers (late sixteenth century, Tetzcoco?)
Iavtle, iautle xoconcuj in mochimal, xoconcuj in tlacochtli, in tevevelli, in javiltiloca tonatiuh = O Yaotl, O Yaotl, take thy shield, take the spear, the little shield which is for the gladness of the sun (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
damia tlacochte [a name, Damian Tlacochte] (Tepetlaoztoc, sixteenth century)
toribio tlacochyaotl (the glyph next to the gloss for this name shows a macana and shield, symbolizing yaotl, and a spear, tlacochtli) (Tepetlaoztoc, sixteenth century)
tlacochtli = fire-hardened darts
…yn onechtemo yn teouatica yn tlachinoltica auh yn tlacochtli yn teueueli y nomaceual…. = …me buscan para la guerra y para el dardo y el teueuelli, que son mi merecimiento…. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Yq[ua]c mic Tlacochtzin cuicani Amanalco cha[n]e. = En ese entonces murió Tlacochtzin, era cantor habitante de Amanalco. (ca. 1582, Mexico City)