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ocotzocuahuitl.

Headword: 
ocotzocuahuitl.
Principal English Translation: 

gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) (see Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
okotsokwɑwitɬ
Frances Karttunen: 

OCOTZOCUAHU(I)-TL gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) / ocozol, liquidámbar (Z) [(3)Zp.77,90,179]. The gum from this tree is cooked and formed into tablets that are used for medicinal purposes. Burned, they produce a smoke used for fumigation. See OCOTZO-TL, CUAHU(I)-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 176.

Attestations from sources in English: 

The ocotzocuahuitl is mentioned in the Florentine Codex, Book 11. The emphasis is on the liquidambar resin it exudes when the bark is cut. Also, smoking tubes are made from this tree.
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. 115v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/115v . Accessed 12 November 2025.

themes: 
Jewelry, Adornment, Accouterments
Plants, Trees, Flora