cihua tlayelli.

Headword:

cihua tlayelli.

Principal English Translation:

a woman's period, menstruation(?); tlayelli also refers to bloody diarrhea

Orthographic Variants:

ciua tlayelli, cihua tlaelli, ciua tlaelli

Alonso de Molina:

ciua tlayelli. las pares de la muger.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 22v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English:

the placenta
Lucien Adam, et al, Bibliothèque linguistique Américaine, originally Coleccion lingüística Americana or Collection linguistique Américaine (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1871), 126.

Tlayelli (also tlaelli) relates to dirt, stain. It also stood for bloody diarrhea. And a placenta was also called tlayzllotl, "foulness."
Louise Burkhart, Slippery Earth, appendix.

themes:

Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine

Women, Men, Gender