milcalatl

milcalatl

Classical Nahuatl

Etymology

milli (“field”) +‎ calatl (“frog; toad”)

Noun

milcalatl

1. A kind of frog or toad.
   • 1555: Alonso de Molina, Aqui comienca un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana, f. 208r

     Rana otra. milcalatl.

   • 16C: Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, book 11, chapter 4, paragraph 4

     MILCALATL: çan no ach iuhquj in tamaçoli, iece çan tepiton, çan qualli injc chachaquachtic: injc mjtoa mjlcalatl, xopitzactic, cujtlapicictic, cujtlatolontic: ixmacuex.

     (MILCALATL: It is something like the toad, but quite small, of average size. As it is rough, so it is called milcalatl. It is slender-legged; it is very thin [or] very fat. Its eyes are like jewels.)

References

• Sahagún, Bernardino de (1963) Florentine Codex, Book 11 - Earthly Things, tr. by Charles E. Dibble & Arthur J. O. Anderson, Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, page 73