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tlequiquiztli.

Headword: 
tlequiquiztli.
Principal English Translation: 

a firearm, such as a gun, or a cannon
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), 239.

IPAspelling: 
tɬekikistɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

tlequiquiztli. arcabuz o escopeta. &c.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 147v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TLEQUIQUIZ-TLI firearm / arcabuz o escopeta, etc. (M), armas de fuego (C) [(3)Cf.104r,109r,120r]. See TLE-TL, QUIQUIZ-TLI.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 308.

Horacio Carochi / English: 

tlequiquiztli = firearms
Horacio Carochi, S.J., Grammar of the Mexican Language with an Explanation of its Adverbs (1645), translated and edited with commentary by James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Studies Volume 89 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001), 381.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

tletl, quiquiztli, horn, trumpet, whistle.
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), 239.

Attestations from sources in English: 

aun in tlequiquiztli vncan quicauhtiquizque in temalacatitlan = In their haste they left behind the cannon on the round stone.
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), 196.

conchichiuhque tlequiquiztli = they adjusted the guns. (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), 190.

auh in Españoles no quinvalmina in Mexica in ica tepuzmitl, yoan ic quinvalmotla in tlequiquiztli = from there the Spaniards shot at the Mexica with iron bolts and fired guns at them (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), 138.

In Book 12 of the Digital Florentine Codex, Lockhart translates tlequiquizli as a "lombard gun."
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 12, fol. 8v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/8v?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 13 February 2026.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Q[ui]pilloq[ue] español tlequiquiztica temicti = colgaron a un español que mató a una persona con arma de fuego (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 162.

themes: 
Weapons, Shields, Heraldry