xonecuilli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

xonecuilli.

Principal English Translation:

a stick or staff with notches that was "offered to the idols" (see Molina); a type of cactus (see Karttunen); zigzagging or twisted in shape (see Mikulska), such as a twisted foot or leg (sometimes referring to someone with a limp), as seen in personal names; can also be related to gout (see attestations)

IPAspelling:

ʃonekwilli

Alonso de Molina:

xonecuilli. palo como bordon con muescas que ofrecian alos idolos.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 161r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

XONECUIL-LI staff used in offerings; a type of cactus / palo como bordón con muescas que ofrecían a los ídolos (M), nopal de monte (flor) (Z) [(2)Zp.89,229]. See XO-, NECUILOĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 331.

Attestations from sources in English:

The Florentine Codex, Book 11, folio 141v-142r, includes a plant called xonecuilpatli (which would also be spelled xonecuilpahtli with the glottal stop). This plant is the source of a remedy for gout in the form of a beverage. It can also be rubbed onto the body. The plant can sting like a scorpion bite. One who is paralyzed can be cured by taking a bath in the infusion. Incidentally, the image of the plant suggests nothing twisted or bent, so the origin of the name is unclear.
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 141v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/141v?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 20 November 2025.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

xonecuilli = "palabra que se aplicaba en general a la forma torcida (Contel, comunicación personal, 2012)" (p. 101)
Katarzyna Mikulska, "Te hago bander... Signos de banderas y sus significados en la expresión gráfica nahua", en Los códices mesoamericanos: registros de religión, política y sociedad, Miguel Ángel Ruz Barrio y Juan José Batalla Rosado, coordinadores (Zinacantepec: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2016), 85–133.

xonecuilli = "tortillas en forme de S." (Wimmer 2004)
"'pie torcido,' o pan en forma zigzag, usado en ciertas fiestas Sah Garibay IV 370"
Gran Diccionario Náhuatl, citando a Wimmer 2004, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/xonecuilli/77049

themes:

Gifts, Offerings, Sacrificial Rites

Religion (Christian)