trying to find the word for...

[Frances Karttunen]

>  >please don't think this odd but i collect knives and weapons and was
>  >wondering what the name for the "aztec sword" is in nahuatl.
>

> macehuatl
>
Eh?  As several listeros have already pointed out, the word sought is
ma:ccuahuitl (from ma:c 'hand-locative' plus cuahuitl 'tree, wood, staff,
stick, or beam.'

The word ma:ce:hualli  (I am using the colon here to indicate a long vowel)
is a word often used where Spanish speakers would use 'indio.'  Its basic
meaning is one who is a subject to someone else.  So Nahuatl-speaking
commoners identified themselves as ma:ce:hualtin with respect to their lords
and rulers.

But by the rules of Nahuatl polite speech, the humble were raised up, while
the powerful minimized their own importance.  So supreme rulers almost
always referred to themselves as ma:ce:hualtin and usually
icno:ma:ce:hualtin 'poor commoners in need of compassion.'  This did not
fool anyone, of course.  Nor was it self-abasement.  When a ruler
resplendent in quetzal feathers and golden ear plugs spoke of himself as a
ma:ce:hualli, he was admired for his rhetorical correctness, and nobody
dared take any liberties or familiarities with such a proud and all-powerful
man.

Once the great lords of preconquest times had been brought low, there was
gradually less and less distinction between real ma:ce:hualtin and honorific
ones.  Once everybody had been made subjects of the Spanish king and the
Christian God, ma:ce:hualli came to mean 'indigenous person' (even used by
Nahuatl-speakers to refer to other indigenous peoples besides themselves)
and also 'speaker of Nahuatl.'  Besides Mexicano, another name in use for
Nahuatl among its speakers is ma:ce:huallahto:lli (< ma:ce:hual- plus
tlahto:lli 'speech").

There has been a mistaken etymology of ma:ce:hualli perpetuated through
studies that haven't taken vowel length and "saltillo" into account, namely
that one is a ma:ce:hualli because of one's deserving-ness.  This is because
there is a verb mahce:hualtia: 'to give someone what s/he deserves.'  And
there is actually a noun mahce:hualli meaning 'merit, recompense.'  But as
you see, the 'deserving' words have a saltillo in the first syllable where
the 'subject' words have a long vowel.

There is another colorful speculation on the root meaning of ma:ce:hualli
(which I don't personally put any stock in), that it has to do with people
who dance around in circles with their hands resting on their hips.  This
etymology makes the word up from ma:- 'hand' and the verb ce:huia: 'to rest
or relieve something (in this case, one's hands).

The way I see it, a society that is strictly divided into two parts, a
ruling elite and a productive body of workers (as Mesoamerican societies
were) needs a word for the ruling class (pi:piltin) and another for the
subject people (ma:ce:hualtin), and why should we ask for more arcane
underlying meanings?


Frances Karttunen