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.

xonacatl.

Headword: 
xonacatl.
Principal English Translation: 

onion(s) (see Molina and Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
ʃonɑkɑtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

xonacatl. cebolla.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 161r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

XONAC(A)-TL pl: -MEH onion / cebolla (M) This invites analysis into XO- ‘foot’ and NAC(A)-TL ‘flesh.’
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 330–331.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Ҫaҫan tleino iztactetzintli quetzalli conmantica. Xonacatl = What is a small white stone holding a quetzal feather? The onion (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 238.

Ҫaҫan tleino, quaztalcomoctzin, quetzalli conmantica: ҫan ie no iehoatl in xonacatl = What is that which is white-headed, holding a quetzal feather? This is likewise the onion (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 238.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Huexotlicac zan xonacatl = en Huexotlicaca, solo cebollas hay (Tlaxcala, 1568)
Catálogo de documentos escritos en náhuatl, siglo XVI, vol. I (Tlaxcala: Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala y el Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, 2013), 145.

yxonaca tocaya ytech povia yn Nacotzin = sembraba cebollas, le pertenecia a Nacotzin (Tlaxcala, 1568)
Catálogo de documentos escritos en náhuatl, siglo XVI, vol. I (Tlaxcala: Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala y el Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, 2013), 145.

Ҫaҫan tleino iztactetzintli quetzalli conmantica. Xonacatl = Que cosa y cosa, piedra blanca y della nacen plumas verdes. Es la cebolla (centro de México, s. XVI)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 238.

Ҫaҫan tleino, quaztalcomoctzin, quetzalli conmantica: ҫan ie no iehoatl in xonacatl = Que cosa y cosa, que tiene los cabellos canos hasta al cabo y cria plumas verdes. Es tambien la cebolla (centro de Mexico, s. XVI)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 238.

IDIEZ morfema: 
xonacatl.
IDIEZ traduc. inglés: 
wild onions.
IDIEZ def. náhuatl: 
Ce tlamantli tlacualiztli; eli zan campa quitocah; itzontecon iixnezca chipahuac huan ixihuiyo xoxoctic; quitequihuiah para quitzoyonizceh huan quiahhuialia ce tlacualli. “Quemman Maria tlaezteca nochipa concui xonacatl nomillah pampa ya axquipiya huan monequi quitlalhuiliz.”
IDIEZ gramática: 
tlat.
themes: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Metaphors, Proverbs, Riddles
Plants, Trees, Flora