xocotl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

xocotl.

Principal English Translation:

hog plum; a sour fruit; or, fruit in general
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), 241.

Orthographic Variants:

xucotl

IPAspelling:

ʃokotɬ

Alonso de Molina:

xocotl. fruta.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 160v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

XOCO-TL fruit, plum / fruta (M), ciruela (X) This appears to be used as a more generic term for fruit, while XOCOTE-TL is specifically ‘plum.’ Most derivations from XOCO-TL have to do with sourness, unripeness, or immaturity.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 329.

Attestations from sources in English:

The Florentine Codex tells of varieties of xocotl, including the texocotl (Book 11, f. 122r), a rounded, thorny tree with a yellow fruit that "deaden one's teeth" and make one's stomach swell; the mazaxocotl of the Totonac region, which has a chili-red and yellow, small juicy fruit (f. 122v); the atoyaxocotl (f. 122v), with a sweet-sour, fragrant fruit that can be eaten raw, cooked, or made into octli; and, the xalxocotl, which is sweet-sour with a sandy center and "causes one to belch" (f. 122v).
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. 11, fol. 122r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/122r?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 13 November 2025.

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

no vmpa via y teteu ynan, yoã conxuchimacaya y xucutl, ioã = Teteoinnan also went there and offered flowers to the xocotl.
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 61.

alahuerta yn onca onoc xocoquauhzintli = the orchard where there are fruit trees (San Bartolomé Atenco, 1617)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 3, 60–61.

xucotzintli membrilo cempatli yhuan tzapuquahuitl yey = fruit trees, a row of quince, and three zapote trees (Coyoacan, 1621)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 19, 112–113.

in ma iuhqui xocotl uel oicucic: niman oaluetzi = It is precisely like fruit that has ripened and then falls to the ground.
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 98–99.

xocotl = guava (Mezcala, Jalisco, 2025)
A personal communication to Stephanie Wood, January 2025.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

xocotl = fruto en general
Rémi Siméon, Diccionario de la lengua náhuatl o mexicana (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1988), xxxvi.

themes:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Plants, Trees, Flora