ehecatl.

Headword: 
ehecatl.
Principal English Translation: 

wind, breeze, movement of the air; when capitalized, the name of a deity or divine force of wind and linked or equated with Quetzalcoatl; and, when paired with yohualli, refers to the deity of the near and far; some will say it is bad spirit, a ghost; also, it is a calendrical marker and therefore a name for people born on a day with this marker (see Sahagún)
See: 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), 217.

Orthographic Variants: 
eecatl, yeyecatli, yehecatl, heecac, hecatl
IPAspelling: 
eheːkɑtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

eecatl. viento, o ayre. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 28r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

EHĒCA-TL pl: -MEH breeze, wind, bad spirit, ghost / viento, o aire (M), aire, viento; espíritu malo, malos aires (T) B, C, and T agree in the glottal stop and vowel length pattern, although it is slightly obscured in T by initial glide formation and the ambiguity in T of YE and Ē. Z does not mark the vowel of the second syllable long. R has a short vowel and a glottal stop in the second syllable in place of a long vowel, EHEHCA-TL. This is clearly related to IHĪYŌ-TL ‘breath,’ and some dialects of Nahuatl have A for E. Since intervocalic glottal stops only arise in Nahuatl through reduplications of vowel-initial stems, this must be derived from *ĒCA-TL, but the unreduplicated form is unattested in the sources for this dictionary. Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 76.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

tēmōxtli ehēcatl, illness, pestilence. 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), 217.

Attestations from sources in English: 

The unreduplicated ecatl means air.
Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 115.

Ehecatl = The Wind (i.e., the divine force of the wind; what some might call a deity) (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 7 -- The Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Binding of the Venus, No. 14, Part VIII, 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), 14.

vel iuhquin ecatoco = really as though they were being carried off by the wind (Tlatelolco, 1540–80)
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), 197.

omochiuh chicahuac quiahuitl yhuan tesihuitl yca ehecacoatl = there was a great rainstorm with hail and a whirlwind
Here in This Year: Seventeenth-Century Nahuatl Annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla Valley, ed. and transl. Camilla Townsend, with an essay by James Lockhart (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), 144–145.

mochiuh yeyecatli yuā cehzepayahuitli mocha huetzqui quajuitli yuā yolcame motolinique = ...the wind and snow kept coming. All the trees fell and the animals suffered.
Here in This Year: Seventeenth-Century Nahuatl Annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla Valley, ed. and transl. Camilla Townsend, with an essay by James Lockhart (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010), 174–175.

auh nimã. tlamahuiçoltica./ yehecaticpac. hoquimonamiquillico = and then, in a wondrous way they come on the wind to meet her (early seventeenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 106.

totecujo, in tloque naoaque, in ioalli ehecatl = our lord of the near, of the nigh, the night, the wind (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), 32.

Auh cujx tictlacaitta in tloque naoaque: in telpuchtli, in moiocoia, in titlacava in tezcatlipuca: ca iooalli, ca ehecatl = behold the lord of the near, of the nigh, the youth, Moyocoya, Titlacauan, Tezcatlipoca? For he is the night; he is the wind (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), 33.

hecamecatl, xochimecatl onoc = the place of the winds, of the shattering winds, [where] reside the wind people, the flower people (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), 105.

nelli tehoatzin tinetlaxonjuh, titlatlapitzal tonmuchioa in tloque, naoaque in totecujo in iooalli, in ehecatl = verily, thou art the seat, thou art the flute - thou hast become such for the lord of the near, of the nigh, our lord, the night, the wind (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), 187.

ma necaltzaquallo. amoyac huel nenemiz. yn otlipan. ypampa. yn ihquac amo qualli yn ehecatl. quiztoz. yhuan no yxquich ica. ayac tlaquaz. ayac atliz. anoҫo cochiz. yn ixquich ica oc ceppa tlanecitiuh. ynic necitiuh tonatiuh = They should all stay in their houses; nor would anyone be permitted to go about on the roads because at that time a bad air would be passing by, and also during that time no one should eat, drink, or sleep until it should get light again, until the sun should appear (central Mexico, 1611)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 180–1.

Quetzalcoatl: yn ehecatl ynteiacancauh yntlachpancauh in tlaloque, yn aoaque, yn qujqujiauhti. Auh yn jquac molhuja eheca, mjtoa: teuhtli quaqualaca, ycoioca, tetecujca, tlatlaiooa, tlatlalpitza, tlatlatzinj, motlatlaueltia. Auh yujn yn muchichioaia: ocelocopile, mjxtlilpopotz, hecanechioale, mizqujnechioale, tzicoliuhcanacoche, teucujtlaacuechcozque, quetzacoxollamamale, ocelotzitzile, icpaomjcicujle, hecacozcachimale, hecaujque, no poçulcaque. = Quetzalcoatl—he was the wind, the guide and road-sweeper of the rain gods, of the masters of the water, of those who brought rain. And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled, and it crackled and there was a great din, and it became dark and the wind blew in many directions, and it thundered; then it was said: “{Quetzalcoatl} is wrathful.” And thus was he bedight: he had a conical ocelot-skin cap. His face was thickly smeared with soot. He was adorned with {spiral} wind and mesquite symbols. He had a curved, turquoise mosaic ear-pendant. He wore a gold neckband of small sea-shells. He had the quetzal-pheasant as a burden on his back. He had ocelot anklets with rattles. He wore a cotton bone {-ribbed} jacket. He carried the shield with the wind-shell design. He had the curved {inlaid} spear-thrower and also foam sandals. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 1 -- The Gods; No. 14, Part 2, 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, 1950), 3.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

azo ye nican huitz, azo ye nican icatihuitz in temoxtli, in ehecatl inic mitzanaz, inic mitzitzquiz = quizá ya viene quizá de repente venga el mal, el viento (centro de México, s. XVI)
Josefina García Quintana, "Exhortación de un padre a su hijo; texto recogido por Andrés de Olmos," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 11 (1974), 166–167.

axcan ypan xapato mo poa nahui cali tecpatl cali tochi acatl chihuitl cahuitl zipatli= ehecatl= cali= cuespali= cohuatl= miquistli= masatl= tochi= atl= iscuintli= osomatl= minali= acatl= ocelotl= quautli= coscaquautli= olin= tecpatl= quiahuitl= chochitl = ahoy en éste día sábado que se cuenta cuatro casa. Pedernal, Casa, Consejo, Caña, signos de los años en el Tiempo estos cuatro signos se cuentan. Lagarto, Mono, Viento, Yerba tocida, Casa, Caña, Lagartija, Tigre, Culebra, Aguila, Muerte, Aguila de collar, Venado, Movimiento, Conejo, Pedernal, Agua, Lluvia, Perro, Flor (Estado de Hidalgo, ca. 1722?)
Rocío Cortés, El "nahuatlato Alvarado" y el Tlalamatl Huauhquilpan: Mecanismos de la memoria colectiva de una comunidad indígena (New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Colonial Spanish American Series, 2011), 34, 46-47.

huel chicahuac yeecac = corrió fuerte viento (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala and México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 268–9.

Nohuiya[n] heecac huel totocac = por todas partes corrió viento muy fuerte (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), 164.

pedro Ecatl = Pedro Ehecatl (Tlaixpan, 1575)
Benjamin Daniel Johnson, “Transcripción de los documentos Nahuas de Tezcoco en los Papeles de la Embajada Americana resguardados en el Archivo Histórico de la Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia de México”, en Documentos nahuas de Tezcoco, Vol. 1, ed. Javier Eduardo Ramírez López (Texcoco: Diócesis de Texcoco, 2018), 68–69.

It is very common that name glyphs are glossed Ecatl, and it is uncertain whether this really means Ehecatl (wind) or Ecatl (air, breath). The censuses of the mid-sixteenth century are replete with examples. See, for instance, the Matrícula de Huexotzinco.