Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

cempantli.

Headword: 
cempantli.
Principal English Translation: 

one row of things, an agricultural strip; or, a line of writing (see Molina; and see our entry for pantli)

IPAspelling: 
sempɑntɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

cempantli. vna hilera o renglera de cosas, o vn renglon de escriptura.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 16v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

This has been seen as a measure for a strip of agricultural land whose specific size has yet to be determined.
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Unidades nahuas de medida," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 195–223, see p. 210.

It is important to differentiate between centecpantli and cenpantli. Centecpantli refers to the banner that represents 20 things that have been put in an order or lined up (from the verb tecpana).
Personal communication, Gordon Whittaker.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Una medida indeterminada "para delimitar áreas de tierra," "o sea "una franja."
Víctor M. Castillo F., "Unidades nahuas de medida," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 10 (1972), 195–223, ver p. 210.