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.

matoca.

Headword: 
matoca.
Principal English Translation: 

to touch or feel one's own "shameful" body parts; to touch or feel someone's "shameful" body parts; to touch or feel something with the hand (see Molina)

IPAspelling: 
mɑːtokɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

matoca. nino. (pret. oninomatocac.) palpar o tocar sus partes vergonzosas.
matoca. nite. pret. onitematocac.) palpar a otro assi.
matoca. nitla. (pret. onitlamatocac.) tocar o tentar algo con la mano.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 53v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

masturbate; to touch, feel, fondle someone or something / palpar o tocar sus partes vergonzosas (M), palpar a otro así (M), tocar o tentar algo con la mano (M) [(3)Tp.192, (2)Zp. 121, 190]. M gives a specifically sexual interpretation that is lacking in the literal Nahuatl ‘to hand-follow.’ See MĀ(I)-TL, TOCA.
MĀTOCA vrefl, vt to fondle oneself, to
MĀTOQUILIĀ applic. MĀTOCA
MĀTOCALŌ nonact. MĀTOCA
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 139.