zotl.

Headword:

zotl.

Principal English Translation:

one-quarter of a pierna (leg) of cloth; this was a measure, usually used for mantas (tribute cloths); one zotl could also refer to a piece of cloth, or a rag. See also our entries for cenzotl and pierna.

Orthographic Variants:

çotl, çutl

IPAspelling:

sotɬ

Alonso de Molina:

zotl. pierna de manta, o pieza de lienzo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 25r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

a quarter of a standard length of cloth as paid in tribute. length of the o not known; possibly long as in çōhua?
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), 216.

Attestations from sources in English:

See an image that represents zotl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

Auh in isquichtin i yaotequiuaqz i yaotitlancalaqz i yaotitlancalaqz i ye mochintin in q'ntlauhtiaya moteccuiçoma. yquac in tequiquistiloya in tlacaxipeualiztli in q'mmacaya tlilpapatlauac chichicuee çotl nanauhmaca = And all the seasoned warriors, who had entered the field of battle, all these Moctezuma rewarded. When the Feast of Tlacaxipeualiztli was celebrated, he gave each of them four pieces of black cloth, each eight measures broad (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 87.

çe çutl y cuelpachiuhqui = one quarter-length of a doubled cloak (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 154–155.

çe çutl cuauhnavacayotl- çe çotl tequiquachtl çe çotl canavac = one quarter-length of a Cuernavaca cloak, one quarter-length of a tribute cloak, one quarter-length of a narrow cloak (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 150–151.

A manta usually had four piernas, so one çotl was a quarter of a standard piece of cloth.
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), 216.

Ompa ce zotl ommopilo. Iquac mitoa: intla aca nicteixpauia itlaton ipampa: auh ye uey, inic nopan quicuepa inic nechouitilia: = He hung himself with a piece of rag. This is said when I make an accusation against someone because of some trifling thing and he retaliates with something serious.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 124–125.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

"El cemmatzotzopaztli queda entonces con una longitud aproximada de 0.30 m. Y puesto que tzotzopaztli es la lengüeta del telar indígena con que se tupe o aprieta el tejido, podría ser ésta una de las unidades del zotl o pierna." Víctor M. Castillo F., "Unidades nahuas de medida," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 218.

themes:

Measurements, Quantities

Textiles, Clothing

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