icnopilli / icnopilti

[patrick thomas hajovsky]

I'm not sure about using this word to imply merit--compassion is clear in
Molina's Vocabulario.  Merit is gained through other means besides
compassion; compassion, like empathy, implies an equality between
agent and patient.  Merit, on the other hand, involves judgement.  Check
out icnotlacayotl, Molina's entry for "horfandad o miseria," which seems
to be an abstraction of man's suffering in general rather than something
earned.

I think part of the problem is that the word may have had
different meanings in different areas: the entry for fate comes from
Tetelcingo, Morelos.  Molina does not give a similar meaning.  Instead,
the causative icnopiltia means "to stay an orphan."  Karttunen lists
Icnopilti as an irregular verb, from Simeon, taking only possessive
prefixes.  It seems thus to imply that one takes control of one's own
fate, as well as the individual and rather isolated quality of fate
itself.

Patrick
_______________________________
ixquich in pepetlaca xteocuitla

On Thu, 17 May 2001, Mark David Morris wrote:

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> David,
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> What's lost in the glosses is the Mesoamerican (or at least Nahua) idea of
> merit, and that is that you merit by suffering.  Hence, icno-tl while
> meaning literally orphaned is used broadly to suggest merit and
> compassion, e.g. icnoitta, consider with compassion.  Icnopilti suggests
> not that one prospers by luck but by having paid one's dues in one way or
> another.
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> best,
> Mark Morris
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> La muerte tiene permiso a todo
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> MDM, PhD Candidate
> Dept. of History, Indiana Univ.
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