In Nahuatl hieroglyphs, "The chili pepper can be read CHIL(LI), COCOC 'spicy', and COCOL(LI) 'anger'."
Personal communication, Gordon Whittaker, 14 September 2023.
chilli: "it is used every day as an appetizer and as a condiment, scarcely a table is without it . . . They encourage flatulence and stimulate the sexual appetite, and at the same time soften the belly . . . also causes urination and brings on menstruation in women." (central Mexico, 1571–1615) The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 109. Polihui in nochīl; polihui in noztauh = My chili pepper is becoming ruined; my salt is becoming ruined [i.e., my food is becoming ruined]. (Atenango, between Mexico City and Acapulco, 1629) Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón, Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions That Today Live Among the Indians Native to This New Spain, 1629, eds. and transl. J. Richard Andrews and Ross Hassig (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984), 98. abçolco chilnamacac quimana ce domy = the Apçolco chile sellers give 1 tomín (Coyoacan, mid-sixteenth century) Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 25, 146–147. Auh ca nohuian quihualtocatiaque yn tlalli. auh yn quihualquitiaque. yn intech monequia. nacatl yn tonacayotl. yhua yn etl. huauhtli. chian yhuan chilli. xitomatl = And everywhere they sowed seeds in the soil, and they ate what they needed: meat and the products of the lands [like] corn, beans, amaranth, chia, chilis, and tomatoes. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century) Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 76–77. ynic çexiuhtia çetetl- tequicuachtl- : çetetl-canavac nauh:tetl totolli çepovaltetl totolltetl castolpovalli chilli : çe yavalli yztatl- ya yxquich yn itequiuh atle cacavatl = so that in one year it is one tribute cloak, one narrow cloak, four turkey hens, 20 turkey eggs, 300 chiles, and one cake of salt. That is all of his tribute; no cacao. (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s) The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 140–141. Zazan tleino, chimalli iitic tentica. Ca chilli: auh ye in iachyo chimalli. = What is it that is filled with round shields inside? A chile, as its seeds are in the form of round shields. (central Mexico, sixteenth century) Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 135–136. Chile peppers are linked with "cihuatl" (woman) in the Florentine Codex, as we see in the following passage: yn chicome covatl in tonacaiutl: auh in tlatlauhquj civatl in chiltzintli = Chicome coatl, the sustenance, and the red woman, the chili. (central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 35.
chillcualloni | i p[e]so = Se gastó un peso en chile (Hidalgo, late sixteenth century)
Christina Bosque Cantón, La pintura de Tecpatepec: Un códice de quejas contra un corregidor (Zinacantepec: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2019), 75.