tlatecqui. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

tlatecqui.

Principal English Translation:

one who works stones, often precious stones; literally, one who cuts things
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), 238.

a lapidary
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 16v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/16v/images/0 Accessed 5 September 2025.

IPAspelling:

tɬɑtekki

Alonso de Molina:

tlatecqui. lapidario que labra piedras preciosas.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 134v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

pret. agentive of tequi. 238

Attestations from sources in English:

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

tlatecqui = a lapidary
a lapidary
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 16v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/16v/images/0 Accessed 5 September 2025.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

tlatecqui = el lapidario
a lapidary
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 16v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/16v/images/0 Accessed 5 September 2025.

themes:

Jewelry, Adornment, Accouterments

Occupations, Responsibilities

Stones, Masonry