axin.

Headword: 
axin.
Principal English Translation: 

an insect (Llaveia axin, in the family Margarodidae, order Hemiptera) a genus endemic to Mexico and Guatemala) (personal communication, Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg, 10 May 2022); the insect secrets a substance/ointment used medicinally, and that substance itself is also called axin (see Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants: 
āxin
IPAspelling: 
ɑːʃin
Alonso de Molina: 

axin. cierto vnguento desta tierra.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 10r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

ĀX-IN pl: -TIN insect that secrets a substance used medicinally, and that substance itself / cierto ungüento de esta tierra (M), la grosura de ciertos gusanos que se emplea útilmente en la medicina (R) [(1)Tp.240,(2)Zp.34,208,(1)Rp.63]. R fails to mark the initial vowel long, while T has a stem-final A in the absolutive form which is absent in the pural form.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 15.

Attestations from sources in English: 

"Coccus axin: 'axi, axin or aje, an oily yellowish substance which is produced by a scale insect of the same name upon the branches of Jatropha curcas, Spondias, and other trees'." Quoted from a study by Paul C. Standley of the "Trees and Shrubs of Mexico."
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 89.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

SUAZO-ORTUNO, Ireri; DEL VAL-DE GORTARI, Ek y BENITEZ-MALVIDO, Julieta. Redescubriendo un insecto extraordinario que desaparece: Llaveia axin axin. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. [online]. 2013, vol.84, n.1, pp.338-346. ISSN 2007-8706. https://doi.org/10.7550/rmb.31286
Alejándro de Ávila Blomberg; personal communication, 10 May 2022, who points to this publication: http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1870-345320...

themes: 
Animals, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, Fish, etc.
Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine