molcaxitl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

molcaxitl.

Principal English Translation:

small mortar for grinding chiles; also, sauce bowl(s)
S. L. Cline, Colonial Culhuacan, 1580-1600: A Social History of an Aztec Town (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986), 236.

Orthographic Variants:

mulcaxitl

IPAspelling:

moːlkɑʃitɬ

Frances Karttunen:

MŌLCAX(I)-TL pl -MEH ~ -TIN stone mortar, soup bowl / escudilla (M), molcajete (T) [(1)Bf.11r, (1)Tp.166]. See MŌLLI, CAX(I)-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 151.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

This term was loaned to Spanish as molcajete.

pollatoz yhuan molcaxitl = the [Spanish-style] plates and [traditional] sauce bowls (Central Mexico, 1552)
Fray Alonso de Molina, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM, ed. and trans., Barry D. Sell (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 2002), 88–89.

inmolcax = their sauce bowls
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 20–21.

amo titlatetexcoloz, amo titlamatatacaz in molcaxic, in chiqujvic = Thou art not to stir up the pieces, not to dig into the sauce bowl, the basket (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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, 1961), 124.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

Azo huel mani in molcaxitl, in chiquihuitl; azo huel onihua, azo huel oncualo in atolatzintli, in huapahuacatzintli; azo huel onoc in petlatl, in icpalli; azo huel nemaco in xochitl, in iyetl = Quizá permanece bien el molcajete, el canasto; tal vez se bebe bien, quizá se come bien el atolito, las frutillas; quizá yacen bien la estera, la silla; puede ser que sean bien dadas las flores, el tabaco (Este párrafo significa que quizá hay orden, hay paz) (centro de México, s. XVI)
Josefina García Quintana, "Exhortación de un padre a su hijo; texto recogido por Andrés de Olmos," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 11 (1974), 172–173.

themes:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Furniture, Household Goods

Technology, Tools