nenemi. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

nenemi.

Principal English Translation:

to go about, go along, travel; walk; run

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), 226.

This verb is often found in association with walking off a set of boundaries. [SW]

Orthographic Variants:

nehnemi

IPAspelling:

nehnemi

Alonso de Molina:

nenemi. ni. (pret. oninenen.) andar, o caminar.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 68r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

NEHNEM(I) pret: -NEN to wander about / andar o caminar (M) This is a reduplicated form of NEM(I), which in the free form generally means ‘to live’ but here and in compounds ‘to go about.’

NEHNEMOHUA nonact. NEHNEM(I).

NEHNEMĪTIĀ altern. caus. NEHNEM(I).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 162.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

ni. Class 2: ōninehnen. distributive of nemi. 226

Attestations from sources in English:

yn iquac nenemj cenca yxaoaca, yxamaca, xaxamaca, tzitzilica, tzitzitzilica = and when she walked, much did she rattle, clink, jingle, and tinkle (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, 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.

ce atlacuic civatl, in quimittac: niman ie ic tzatzi:quito. Mexica, xioalnenemican = It was a woman fetching water who saw them, then she shouted, saying, "O Mexica, come running" (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 154.

yvā in çoatl piltzintli quinī nenemiz ohtlipā = And how would the women and children travel on the road? (Tlaxcala, 1560)
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), 192.

nenemi = literally, walk or travel, but with boundaries, the meaning becomes "runs" or "runs along" (The boundary runs through such and such a location and comprises ["quicenhuica"] such places.)
Wigberto Jiménez Moreno, Techialoyan Codex W: Foreword, September 1954; in the possession of Sean Galvin, with the manuscript

The phrase "nenemi quaxochtli" (the boundary runs...) is a very common phrase in Techialoyan texts.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

yniuh neztica yntlapohual huehuêtque. ynic nican yehual nenemi = según resulta del cómputo anual de los ancianos; y entonces se vinieron a pie para acá. [como viene apareciendo en la cuenta de años de los viejos; entonces hacia acá ya vienen andando.] (centro de Mexico, s. XVI)
Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, Crónica mexicayotl; traducción directa del náhuatl por Adrián León (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1998), 14.

nenemi = corren (para hablar de tierras)
Xavier Noguez, Códice Techialoyan de San Pedro Tototepec (Estado de México) (México, El Colegio Mexiquense A.C. y Gobierno del Estado de México, 1999), 40.

nenemi coaxochtli = corren los linderos
Xavier Noguez, Códice Techialoyan de San Pedro Tototepec (Estado de México) (México, El Colegio Mexiquense A.C. y Gobierno del Estado de México, 1999), 37; tambien se encuentra cuando se entiende: corren las mojoneras

necoccanpa nenemi coaxo[c]htli netztimani = por ambos lados pasa el límite, se extiende
Anneliese Monnich, "El Altepeamatl de Ocoyacac, México," Indiana 2 (1974), 172.

themes:

Transportation, Travel