Meaning of Tenochtitlán

R. Joe Campbell campbel at indiana.edu
Tue Mar 2 06:44:52 UTC 1999


One small addition:  the 'te-' of 'tenochtitlan' is 'te(-tl)' [stone].
Fruits that were hard (like green apples) picked up the 'te(-tl)' as a
compounding element to indicate the hardness.  Cf. 'texocotl', Spanish
"tejocote".

Some more -tlan words:

Tototlan
Teocuitlatlan
Mazatlan
Xochitlan
Acaxochitlan
Ahuacatlan
Ahuatlan
Ahuehuetitlan
Amatitlan
Camotlan
Coatlan
Colotlan (not named by the Chamber of Commerce)
Cuautitlan
Chiquihuitlan
Eloxochitlan
Huajolotitlan
Huehuetlan
Ilamatlan
Jalostotitlan
Mazatlan
Miahuatlan
Ocotlan
Tecalitlan (Arriba el Mariachi Vargas!)
Tecomatlan
Tepotzotlan
Tepoztlan
Xayacatlan
Zapotitlan

Best regards,

Joe



On Mon, 1 Mar 1999 Cuauhcoatl at aol.com wrote:

> Noch-tli seems to be the stem of this word, which meens fruit of the prickly
> pear cactus. The suffix -Tlan meens below, next to, among, or at the base of.
>
> ex. Acatlan- Acatl = reed -Tlan = near the abundance of.
>      Coatlan- Coatl = snake, serpeant -Tlan = near abundance of.
>
>
> For some words the suffix -Tlan can also be extended, for pronunciation
> purposes, into Ti -Tlan.
>
> I'm not an expert on the subject but I do know enough, and I hope this is
> right.
>
> Juan
>



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