tzontli ima. | Nahuatl Dictionary

tzontli ima.

Headword:

tzontli ima.

Principal English Translation:

a certain type of bug, such as a spider (see Molina); a spider called the daddy longlegs (DFC); literally, "it has 400 hands/arms" (SW)
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 99r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/99r/images/5edf99b6-4... Accessed 4 November 2025.

Orthographic Variants:

tzuntlima, tzontlima, tzuntli ima

Alonso de Molina:

tzuntlima. cierta sauandija como araña.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 154r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

tzontli ima = el opilión (la araña con piernas largas)
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 99r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/99r/images/5edf99b6-4... Accessed 4 November 2025.

themes:

Animals, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, Fish, etc.