cempohualquimilli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

cempohualquimilli.

Principal English Translation:

400; twenty bundles with 20 items such as cloths inside; one quimilli referred to a bundle of 20 items, so 20 of these meant 400 total, hence Molina's reference to 400 cloths; this is the vigesimal system par excellence, with probably twenty men carrying bundles of 20 mantas each, to be provided in tributes; while textiles were the usual referent, the quimilli could contain other things

Orthographic Variants:

cempohual quimilli, cempoal quimilli

Alonso de Molina:

cempoal quimilli. quatrocientas mantas, o quatrocientas cargas olios de mantas.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 16v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English:

These were bundles that could be carried on a human's back.
Michael Adas, Technology and European Overseas Enterprise (2017).

"Aztec quimilli 'bundle, bunch' > -quimilli 'twenty=' (numerative for blankets and clothes) (Andrews 1975: 190)."
Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, vols. 33-36 (1993), p. 34.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

quimil, envoltorio, lio
Manuel Orozco y Berra, Historia antigua y de la conquista de México: 1a. pte (1880), 307.

"...correspondiente a la carga de un hombre, formaban un quimilli, por lo cual quimilli significaba por extensión veinte y su símbolo gráfico representaba carga de artículos textiles..."
Miguel Othón de Mendizábal, Obras completas, vol. 6 (1947), p. 316.

themes:

Numbers, Math

Textiles, Clothing