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.

tlacuatzin.

Headword: 
tlacuatzin.
Principal English Translation: 

an opossum (or possum) (see Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants: 
tlacuātzin
IPAspelling: 
tɬɑkwɑːtsin
Frances Karttunen: 

TLACUĀTZIN opossum / tlacuache, zarigüeya (T) [(1)Tp.229,(3)Zp.103,123,205,(3)Xp.90]. T has a short vowel in the second syllable, while Z marks it long, as it should be if derived from the verb CUĀ ‘to eat something’ Z gives this for ‘opossum’ and also for ‘porcupine’. M has tlaquatl ‘a type of animal.’ See TLACUĀNI, CUĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 258.

themes: 
Animals, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, Fish, etc.