maitl. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

maitl.

Principal English Translation:

hand or arm; or, a measurement (see also matl and cemmatl); or, an outlying extension of a community (an extensions of an altepetl); in hieroglyphic writing, images ma(itl) (hands, arms) could be used for place names ending in -ma or -mān ("where there is"), which might be a truncation of mani

Orthographic Variants:

matl, ma, maytl, mait

IPAspelling:

mɑːitɬ

Alonso de Molina:

maytl. mano.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 51v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

MĀ(I)-TL compounding form: MĀ-MAH hand or arm, branch, dependency / mano (M), mano. por ext. brazo, rama (S) In addition to the alternating stem forms MĀ and MAH, the reduplicated form MĀMĀ is used in some compounds. In referring to a tree’s branches the inalienably possessed form is –MĀYŌ or –MĀMĀYŌ . MĀYEH ‘someone with hands’ has –EH as the possessor suffix, which is form used with stems ending in consonants. Perhaps the Y is from I, or possibly this should be MĀY(I)-TL. X gives mātli, which also implies a stem-final consonant. MĀH-TLI, however, is impossible in terms of Nahuatl phonology, because vowels before glottal stops are always short.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 133–134.

Horacio Carochi / English:

māitl = arm, hand
Horacio Carochi, S.J., Grammar of the Mexican language with an explanation of its adverbs (1645), translated and edited with commentary by James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Studies Volume 89 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001), 506.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

hand, forearm, arm. Combining form sometimes mā-, sometimes mah. 224
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 224.

Attestations from sources in English:

On early maps, a glyph of a hand has been seen to represent the land measure, maitl. But in textual manuscripts, we see both maitl and matl. For example, a document from Mexico City from 1600 uses both matl and maitl. Speaking of chinampas, we see the measure "matlactli oce maitl ypan cemomitl." A translation from 1697 uses braza to translate matl/maitl, and explains that the omitl was 1/3 of a matl/maitl.
James Lockhart collection, notes in the file "Land and Economy." For this example he cites AGN (Mexico) Tierras, vol. 165, exp. 6, ff. 14v., 15r.

Īmmācpa ōniquīz in otomî = I escaped from the Otomi (lit. emerged from their hands)
Michel Launey, An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, translated and adapted by Christopher MacKay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 118.

in matitech qujmaantiuj = went leading by the hand
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, 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, 1951), 80.

ymactzinco nocontlalia yn noyollia yn nanima ypanpa ca ytlamaquixtiltzin = I commend my spirit and soul to his hands, for it is something redeemed by him (San Bartolomé Atenco, 1617)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 3, 58–59.

vmexti in imacpal çatepan quiquechvitecque veca vetzito in iquech = both of his hands were severed. Then they struck his neck; his head landed far away (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 134.

ca much vncā [fol.31] icuiliuhtoc in tzontecomatl, nacaztli, iollotli, cuitlaxculli eltapachtli, tochichi, macpalli, xocpalli = for there were painted all severed heads, ears, hearts, entrails, livers, lungs, hands and feet (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 128.

yz ca yn imil chicuematli yz ca yn itequivh ce çotli canavac ya yxquich yn itequivh y napovaltica quicava çecotli [sic? meant çeçotli?] y cuavhnavacayotli yz ca yn itetlacualtil ce çotli canavac ya ixquich yn itequivh = Here is his field: 8 matl. Here is his tribute that he delivers every 80 days: one quarter-length of a Cuernavaca cloak each time. Here is his provisions tribute: one quarter-length of a narrow cloak. That is all of his tribute. (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), 112–113.

yz ca yn imil chicuazematla [sic] yz ca yn itetlacualtil çe çotli canavac atle y[...]laquil ça ya yo yn itequivh y nica acticate macuilti y cetetli calli y cate = Here is his field, six matl. Here is his provisions tribute, one quarter-length of a narrow cloak. [He gives] no tribute in kind, that is all his tribute. There are five people included in one house here. (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), 112–113.

yz ca yn imil matlacmatli = Here is his field; it is ten units (in length) (Cuernavaca, 1535–45)
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 190.

matl, matzintli = land measurements (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), 44–53.

ymac = through (him or her or it); through or by (his) hand, under (his) charge
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

momactzinco = in your hand(s) (reverential)
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

inmatica (ynmatica, etc.) = in their hands, by their hands
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

nicnotennamiquilia in momatzin in mocxitzin = I kiss your hands and feet (formulaic phrase)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), 30.

icenmactzinco = entirely in the hands of [God]
ce imactzinco = (the same meaning; seen this way in the Toluca Valley)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 41.

huel isemactzincon = very entirely in the hands of (Santa Ana, Toluca Valley, 1728)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 117.

maitl = hand [arm]
toma = our hand
ueiac = long
uitlatztic = very long
tepiton = small
tzapa = diminutive
mitoa maueiac = it is said, long-hand
mauiuiiac = long hands
mauiuitla = it grasps a handful
matzapa = hand diminishes
maҫoa = hand extends
maiaui = it casts
tlatequipanoa = it works
tlamatoca = it touches
tlatzitzquia = it grasps
tlanaoatequi = it embraces things
tenaoatequi = it embraces one
tlamalcochoa = it embraces something
tlamacochoa = it embraces something
temacochoa = it embraces one
temacochuia = it causes one to embrace
tlanapaloa = it carries armloads (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
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), 115.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

in maitl in icxitl = mano, pie = una metáfora para decir 'ser humano' (s. XVI)
Katarzyna Mikulska, "Te hago bandera...Signos de banderas y sus significados en la expresión gráfica nahua," Los códices mesoamericanos: Registros de religión, política y sociedad, coord. Miguel Angel Ruz Barrio y Juan José Batalla (Zinacantepec, Estado de México: El Colegio Mexiquense, 2016), 86..

ynic patlahuac cenpohualli onmatlactli maytl auh ynic hueyac aço centzontli = de ancho tiene treinta brazas y de largo me parece que tendrá cuatrocientas brazas (Tlaxcala, 1609)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 60–61.

naniman ymactzinco nocontlalia yn totecuyo Dios = mi ánima la pongo en las manos de Dios (Coyoacan, 1607)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 52–53.

yc nomatica niquetza cruz = con mi mano pongo una cruz (Ciudad de México, 1558)
Luis Reyes García, Eustaquio Celestino Solís, Armando Valencia Ríos, et al, Documentos nauas de la Ciudad de México del siglo XVI (México: Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Archivo General de la Nación, 1996), 99.

Auh ynic omotamachiuh yn itepotz hematl auh yn inacaz matlactli brazas = Y midiose la trasera dellas y tuvo tres brazas y por el lado tuvo diez brazas (Ciudad de México, 1582)
Luis Reyes García, Eustaquio Celestino Solís, Armando Valencia Ríos, et al, Documentos nauas de la Ciudad de México del siglo XVI (México: Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Archivo General de la Nación, 1996), 181.

niman ompa oquilpi, oquitzacuili in imahuan ica esposas = allí mismo en el instante lo aprisionó, cerrándole las manos con esposas (Puebla, 1797)
Anales del Barrio de San Juan del Río; Crónica indígena de la ciudad de Puebla, xiglo XVII, eds. Lidia E. Gómez García, Celia Salazar Exaire, y María Elena Stefanón López (Puebla: Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, BUAP, 2000), 108.

yhua[n] yn ipa[n] esta[n]çia yn ima altepetl moch hualla yn intlahuiz yn ipa[n] macehualloc = Y de las estancias, manos del altepetl vinieron todas sus insignias con las cuales danzaron. (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 154.

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