tzilini. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

tzilini.

Principal English Translation:

for a bell or bells, or the like, to ring; with telling time, this word can stand for "o'clock"
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 240.

Orthographic Variants:

tzinli, tzillini, tzilli

IPAspelling:

tsiliːni

Alonso de Molina:

tzilini. (pret. otzilin.) sonar, o reteñir el metal.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 152r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

TZILĪN(I) for a bell to ring, for something metallic to sound / sonar o reteñir el metal (M). /
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 312.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

Class 2: ōtzilīn.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 240.

Attestations from sources in English:

yc ypan macuilli ypan tlaco hora = it was half past 5 o'clock (central Mexico, 1612)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 206–207.

hualmoquetzino yn omoteneuhtzino visurrey yn quimopahpaquiltillique oncan hualmotztilitoya ynic oncan tlatzĩtla yxquichcapa ceceyaca oome mãtihui yn ixquichtin. caualleros españolesme in ye mochintin onpohuallonchicuey in ye no ni cuel mocencauhque yn intlaҫotlatquitica vncan conmotlapalhuiaya yxpantzinco onmopachohuaya yn tlahtohuani moch tlacauallohuia candelas achas yn inmac tlatlatlatiuh ynin mochiuh ypan chicome tzillini ye yohuac yn pahpacohuac yhuan yn oncã tecpan tlapantenco y nohuian cenca miec yn õcan tlatlac sepocandelas. ynic mochiuh yn motenehua luminarios = while they feted him he looked on at each of all the Spanish cavaliers below going in pairs, 48 in all, again outfitted in their precious gear; there they greeted the ruler and bowed down before him, and everything was on horseback, with burning candles and tapers in their hands. This celebration took place at 7 o'clock in the evening. And on the palace roof everywhere very many tallow candles burned, making what are called luminarios (central Mexico, 1609–1610)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 160–1.

Choca (to cry, to make a crying sound) was a substitute for the verb tzilini (for bells to ring) in Nahuatl testaments from Totocuitlapilco and San Bartolomé Tlatelolco, valley of Toluca.
Miriam Melton-Villanueva, The Aztecs at Independence: Nahua Culture Makers in Central Mexico, 1799–1832 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016), 75, 78–79.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

yn iquac tziliniz ave maria aocac oncan yez in tiyanquizco niman cauhtivetziz = cuando den el toque de Ave María nadie quede en el mercado, sino que de inmediato se deje el lugar (Cuauhtinchan, Puebla, s. XVI)
Luis Reyes García, "Ordenanzas para el gobierno de Cuauhtinchan, año de 1559," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 266–267.

Santha Caterinan yc tlatzinliniz 1 tomines = un tomín a la ermita de Santa Catalina por el doble de la campana (Coyoacan, 1587)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 276–277.

huel hotzinli matlactl homome oras tlaqualizpan = al sonar las doce horas, a medio día (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala and México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 594–595.

çano yacuican tzili mocuecuepatiz = por primera vez sonó la esquila (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala and México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 316–317.

themes:

Metals, Mining

Sensory Perception (sound, smell, etc.)