a reed or cane; also, a calendrical marker (used as both a day name and a year name), and a personal name; these reeds were made into darts and arrows; in hieroglyphs the acatl takes on a number of different visual forms
See an image that represents acatl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
acaxihuitl (also, acaxiuitl, and acaxivitli) = Reed year
mochantzinco. yn toltzallan. yn acatzallan = your home among the sedges and the reeds. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
auh ca nel tetlalpan yn cate yn motlallico yn tollitic yn acayhtic = And really they were on [other] people's land when they settled in the sedges and reeds. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
yn toltzallan yn acatzallan = among the sedges and the reeds (a metaphor for Mexico Tenochtitlan)
ipan xii. acatl xihuitl. 1705 años = in the year 12 Reed, 1075 (early seventeenth century, central New Spain)
A calendrical marker. For example: ce acatl, 1 acatl = el año 1519, entre otros. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Other examples:
5 acatl = 1523;
9 acatl = 1527. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Good days for getting married were acatl, ozomatli, cipactli, quauhtli, and calli, according to the Florentine Codex. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
tacaio = our reed (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Qujl in qualli tonalli: iehoatl in acatl, oҫumatli, cipactli, quauhtli, calli = They said the good days were Reed, Monkey, Crocodile, Eagle, House (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
ynic umeti ytoca acatl ya nauhxivitl = The second is named Acatl, born four years ago (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
Toribio Hacat was the head of a household of two people, as reported in the Códice de Santa María de la Asunción of Tepetlaoztoc (Tetzcoco).
au ipanpa cemicac tlaneltilities omo tlilmachioti axcan ipan nahui cali tecpatl cali tochi acatl cen chiquipil molpia ipan cas tolpuali ihuan matlacpuali yhuan epuali ihua chique chihuitl cahuitl = Pues para siempre estar dando testimonio de este hecho, se escribió y firmó ahora en este dia cuatro casa. Pedernal, Casa, Consejo, Caña, (4 trecenas) en un atado de años se atan. Encima de quinientos sesenta y ocho años el tiempo. (Estado de Hidalgo, ca. 1722?)
Nica toxiuhal 10 acatl, hamdres cipac alguacil = Aquí, nuestro año 10 acatl. Andrés Cipac, alguacil. (Tetzcoco, 1587)