xaltomatl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

xaltomatl.

Principal English Translation:

a type of fruit (see Karttunen), a purple-to-black berry that tastes like a cross between a grape and a tomato (see Molina for a reference to tomatoes); also, a medicinal plant for curing fevers (see attestations); finally, the name Xaltomaxochitl is attested as a woman's name in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (f. 794r). (SW)

IPAspelling:

ʃɑːltomɑtɬ

Alonso de Molina:

xaltomatl. cierta fruta como tomates.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 158v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

XĀLTOMA-TL pl: -MEH a type of fruit (Saracha jaltomate) / cierta fruta como tomates (M) [(3)Xp.102]. The literal meaning of this is ‘sand tomato.’ See XĀL-LI, TOMA-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 321.

Attestations from sources in English:

a cylindrical root that can be eaten raw or cooked either in a pot or on the comalli (griddle); it is sweet but harsh to the throat
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. 129r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/129r?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 16 November 2025. See also f. 134r, which shows the xaltomaquilitl, apparently another name for the xaltomatl.

a medicinal plant used for treating fever
Martín de la Cruz, Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis; manuscrito azteca de 1552; segun traducción latina de Juan Badiano; versión española con estudios comentarios por diversos autores (Mexico: Fondo de Cultural Económica; Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1991), 21 [10v.].

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

una planta usada para la curación de fiebre, calor
Martín de la Cruz, Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis; manuscrito azteca de 1552; segun traducción latina de Juan Badiano; versión española con estudios comentarios por diversos autores (Mexico: Fondo de Cultural Económica; Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1991), 21 [10v.].

themes:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Plants, Trees, Flora