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.

tlayelli.

Headword: 
tlayelli.
Principal English Translation: 

something foul, dysentery (see Karttunen); or a bloody stool (see Molina)

Orthographic Variants: 
tlahyelli, tlaelli
IPAspelling: 
tɬɑhyelli
Alonso de Molina: 

tlaelli. cosa suzia, o camaras de sangre.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 120v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TLAHYEL-LI something foul, dysentery / cosa sucia o cámaras de sangre (M) M has this as tlaelli, tlahilli, and tlailli, but the glottal stop and Y are consistently attested across sources. Z has Ā for E. See (I)HYĀYA.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 271.

Attestations from sources in English: 

"Tlayelli refers to 'something foul' or to dysentery; it derives from the verb iyaya 'to stink.'"
Louise Burkhart, The Slippery Earth (1989), 105, citing Frances Karttunen.

themes: 
Death
Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine
See also: 
tlahilli.