elotl.

Headword:

elotl.

Principal English Translation:

the young ear of corn or maize, which already has its kernels formed (see Molina and Karttunen); also, a person's name (attested male)

Orthographic Variants:

Ellotl

IPAspelling:

eːloːtɬ

Alonso de Molina:

elotl. mazorca de mayz verde, que tiene ya quajados los granos.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 28v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

ĒLŌ-TL ear of fresh young maize with the kernels already formed, corn on the cob / mazorca de maíz verde, que tiene ya cuajados los granos (M) The first vowel is long in Z and ambiguous in T. There are no attestations in B or C. ĒLŌ-TL contrasts with XĪLŌ-TL, which is the still-soft, semi-formed green ear.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 77.

Attestations from sources in English:

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

Auh onicelihui elotl, ayotli, yhuan tepitzin onicychtec ychcatl = And I desired corn on the cob and gourds and I stole a little bit of wool.
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 135.

ca y çatepan in ihquac ye itech timomati in qualli yectli cenca timoyollaliz. yuhquinma milpan tlaxoxohuiaya tinemiz. tiquittaz. in xilotl in elotl. yn huauhtli yn chie. yn tiquaz. yn tiquiz. = For later, when you become a follower of what is good and righteous, you will be much comforted. You will live as if in a fresh, green field. You will find the green corn, the ripened ear of corn, the amaranth, the chia that you will eat, that you will drink. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 132–133.

Salvia hispanica (lamiaceae).
Joseph P. Cahill, "Ethnobotany of Chia, Salvia hispanica L. (Lamiaceae)," Economic Botany 57:4 (Winter 2003), 604–618.

ytoca ellotl = named Elotl (husband of Tlaco) (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 136–137.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

Auh onicelihui elotl, ayotli, yhuan tepitzin onicychtec ychcatl = Y se me antojó hurtar vnos elotes, y calabaças, y hurté vna poca de lana
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 134–135.

élot = elote
Yaja guicoto:na e:lot pal se yec taga:t pal topocho:an. = Corta elotes sabrosas para el buen hombre y para nuestros compan:eros. (Sonsonate, El Salvador, Nahuat or Pipil, s. XX)
Tirso Canales, Nahuat (San Salvador: Universidad de El Salvador, Editorial Universitaria, 1996), 11–12.

themes:

Corn, Maize

Food, Eating, Cooking

Names (for people, deities)

Plants, Trees, Flora

⚠ Site currently under repair ⚠

Search Issues: Update 2026-08-17 - Repairs are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!