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.

cuilia.

Headword: 
cuilia.
Principal English Translation: 

to take something for oneself; to take something for or from someone (see Karttunen and Molina)

IPAspelling: 
kwiːliɑː
Alonso de Molina: 

cuilia. nicno. (pret. onicnocuili.) tomar algo parasi, sin que nadie selo de.
cuilia. nicte. (pret. onictecuili.) tomar algo a otro.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 26v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

CUĪLIĀ vrefl,vt to take something for oneself; to take something for or from someone / tomar algo para sí, sin que nadie se lo de (M), tomar algo a otro (M) The applicative form of CUI consistently has a long vowel preceding the applicative suffix in all sources but T where the vowel is specifically marked short. applic. CUI CUĪLILIĀ applic. CUĪLIĀ CUĪLĪLŌ nonact. CUĪLIĀ
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 72.

Attestations from sources in English: 

çan tel nochi quimocuillitah ayac quimacac = though he just seized it all, no one gave it to him (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 1, 48–49.