xalmoyotl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

xalmoyotl.

Headword:

xalmoyotl.

Principal English Translation:

a type of small mosquito (see Karttunen); a biting midge, a biting gnat, or a sandfly, found at the coast (DFC, which includes an image and a Nahuatl-language description)
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 109r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/109r/images/0 Accessed 11 November 2025.

Orthographic Variants:

xālmōyōtl

IPAspelling:

ʃɑːlmoːyoːtɬ

Frances Karttunen:

XĀLMŌYŌ-TL pl: -MEH a type of small mosquito / zancudo de arena, mosquito chico (X) [(3)Xp.102]. The literal meaning of this is ‘sand fly.’ See XĀL-LI, MŌYŌ-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 321.

Attestations from sources in English:

In Nahuatl hieroglyphs, the moyotl (mosquito) can sometimes look more like a fly (zayolin). The proboscis varies from a straight one, which could more likely penetrate human skin, to a curled one. See the search results for moyotl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs. (SW)

themes:

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

Marine, Maritime, Lacustrine