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Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
mountain lion, cougar, or a wild cat; also, a name given to a child
See an image that represents miztli in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
mimniztin = mountain lions (plural)
In the ongoing discussion of cat terms Kier Salmon brings up the subject of Nahuatl *ocelotl*. The latter (*o:ce:lo:tl*) is actually 'jaguar' par excellence, whereas *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl *(literally, 'semi-jaguar') is 'ocelot'. I have no idea why Dibble and Anderson (or Anderson and Dibble) decided to continue translating plain *o:ce:lo:tl* simply as 'ocelot', which is quite a misleading definition. The zoologist they consulted, Stephen Durrant, recommended 'jaguar' over their 'ocelot' (Florentine Codex, Bk. 11, 1963, p. 1, fn. 2), but they stuck to their translation. As a result, they rendered both *o:ce:lo:tl* and *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl* as "ocelot".
The indigenous consultants for the Florentine Codex descriptions, however, clearly regarded the *tla'coo:ce:lo:tl*, which they also named the * tla'comiztli* ('semi-puma'), as a separate animal, not merely a different kind of *o:ce:lo:tl*, as the following passage (FC 11: 3) implies:
We don't know whether Aztec *o'o:ce:lo'* only wore jaguar skins, or whether some of them were running around in ocelot uniforms. The evidence strongly favours a primary association with jaguars, for cultic, cosmological and ideological reasons. Thus, for practical purposes, the translation "jaguar warriors" is still okay.
quitzonaya yn teponaztlí- Yhuá cololí; cuauhcoyolí, yhuá hoccequine Yaotlatquítl yca miec tzatziliztli, tla huelecayo tíca cayȗh, Ozelomê mimiztín = quitzonaya in tepona:ztli i:hua:n coyoli, cuauhcoyolin, i:hua:n oc cequi:ne ya:o:tlatquitl i:ca miec tzahtziliztli, tlahue:lehcayo:tica ca iuh o:celo: meh, mimi:ztin = they beat the lateral log drum and trumpets, wooden bells, along with other war property, with much furious shouting, like coyotes, jaguars, and mountain lions.
yn alcalde mayor quinechicozque mimistin = the alcalde mayor ordered that cats be rounded up
yuhqui ce ichcaconetzintli, inic immac mohuetzititiuh in ocelome, in quautla mimiztin = as if he were a little lamb, as he went to fall into the hands of the jaguars, the forest pumas (early sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
mizehualtilmahtli = mountain lion or puma skin cape
Inimequez nahualtin tlanonotzalo quemen mocuepa quemanian de yolcatl, de chichi, de miztli, de cuanaca, o nozo mocuepa in texcaltin. = Cuentan que estos nahuales a veces se vuelven animales--perros, gatos, gallinas--o se vuelven peñascos. (s. XX, Milpa Alta)