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Displaying 1081 - 1120 of 1121 records found.people from here, local people, indigenous people, native people (see attestations) (singular: nican tlacatl; we people here: nican titlaca)
market, place of commerce (see Lockhart); also plaza, central square (which is where most markets were held, of course); note the two images we reproduce, where a central water source is featured and no vendors are seen (these places are both glossed tianquiztli)
stone; egg; gem; ornament; also a counter, a way of representing numbers, but referring to things that are round (see Molina, note from 1555)
paper (originally made from fig bark, from the ficus tree) or the tree itself; a letter; a document; not knowing "paper" meant not knowing "writing" (i.e. not knowing how to write), not being literate; San Pablito Pahuatlan, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, is a town where the amatl paper-making tradition has been conserved
to gird oneself, to tie something or someone up, to take someone into custody (see Molina, Karttunen, and Lockhart); to bind (as in years, or the bundling of a 52-year cycle)
among indigenous people, church steward, the highest of all indigenous church-related officials; also a term used for Spanish officials, who represent the government or a specific branch of the government in legal matters somewhat like a prosecuting attorney
a person of mixed heritage, European and indigenous; the female version is mestiza
(a loanword from Spanish)
a coin, worth one real (8 tomines or reales = one peso); or, more generally, coins or money
a person who keeps or guards the divine, the sacred force; a priest; a friar; a religious, member of a religious order (see Karttunen and Molina)
a divine or sacred force of the sky that could torment people on earth; a "demon of the air" (see Sahagún); a "demon of darkness" (see Chimalpahin)--most of these explanations, reflect Christian/European perspectives on indigenous belief and practice
duck, referring to the general type of duck (bird) and more specific types (see Hunn, attestations)
large capes or cloaks; large pieces of cloth; a large cotton blanket, sheet (see Karttunen); a mantilla, in Spanish (see attestations); such cloth and cloaks could serve as currency in pthe autonomous era (i.e. before European colonization) and in the early Spanish colonial period
flower(s); also, a day sign/calendrical marker; also, the name of a person (can be either female or male); in the combining form, can mean attractive (e.g., xochitenqui, xochitlantli, see links below)
patio, interior courtyard within a house compound; atrium, churchyard
nighttime, each night, or all night, night after night (see Lockhart); also, "the night, the wind" was another way of referring to the deity of the near and far (see Sahagún); darkness, shadow
black, the color; or, a black person, a person of African heritage; to specify a black woman, this word could be combined with cihuatl
a yearly accounting; year count; annals; calendar (see attestations)
drum, especially an indigenous upright cylindrical drum with a deerskin top and sometimes decorated with feathers; also, a very wide cypress tree that could be a visual reminder of the wide drum; finally, Huehuetl (or Huehuetzin, in the honorific version), was a personal name (attested as male) and the name of an important figure in the early days of Tollan, mentioned in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca.
a commoner; and, later in the colonial period: an indigenous person (loaned to Spanish as macehual)
a person of low estate; commoner; vassal
reed mat (loaned to Spanish as petate)
healer, physician, midwife (see Lockhart); prognosticator (see Karttunen and Molina)
maguey plant, century plant, agave; the basis for the production of pulque and mezcal, alcoholic beverages (see Molina and Karttunen)
possessor or master of that which is near, close, in reference to God or, in preconquest times, to powerful indigenous deities
"the mother, the father," a metaphor for the leader of the altepetl, who watches out for the macehualli (commoners) as parents would; typically, but not exclusively, the mother/motherhood is mentioned first; see also separate entries for nantli and tatli (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
a man or, when possessed, a husband; when combined can refer to masculinity, manliness, courage, bravery; might also refer to the son of God (see Molina and attestations)
a divine or sacred force; a deity; divinity; God; something blessed, something divine (see Molina, Karttunen, and attestations)
literally, "human horned owls," but meaning sorcerer, witch; devil, demon; native person practicing pre-Columbian religion in colonial times; a possessed person
rabbit; a calendrical marker and the shape seen in the moon; a person's name (attested male); and, slang for a woman's genitals
a minister/priest and servant of the temples of pre-Columbian times (see Molina); also, the deities associated with Tlalocan (see Sahagún); there were towns named Tlamacazompan (Codex Mendoza 36r) and Tlamacazcatzinco (Historia Tolteca Chichimeca); finally, this is a "derisive" name for a bird, the Mourning Dove (see Hunn, attestations)
The plural is tlamacazque[h].
a sorcerer; a shape-changer; a spirit, often an animal form or shape a person could take on (see Karttunen; Molina gives "witch"); hieroglyphs show it attached to the crown of the human head; see for example, Nahualecaxoc (MH904v) and Nahual (MH879v)
The root nahual- "means to transform, convert, transfigure, disguise, re-clothe, mask oneself, conceal, camouflage, and finally to trick."
day; the sun; heat, solar heat; summertime; day sign on which one was born, and by extension, someone's lot, fate, portion, or share; patrimony
also a person's "vital power" (see Klor de Alva); or a person's "a solar-derived animating force" (see Caplan)