1 Jun 2025 / 12 Snake
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Find out moreQuestion for April 2018
Most interesting fact you’ve come across about the Aztecs (4)? Asked by Witham Hall Prep School. Chosen and answered by Dr. Frances Karttunen
They had so many different words for “snot.” Also an amazingly large number of words for lying and deception.
Editor adds:-
Book 10 of the Florentine Codex contains an entire chapter just about all the organs of the body, and another on common ailments and the cures for them. Included - mostly within the paragraph titled ‘the filth which issueth from the body’ - are the following phrases (English/Nahuatl):-
• [our nose] has mucus: iacacuitlaiooa
• nasal mucus: iacacujtlatl; iacatolli; netzomjlli
• throat mucus: tozcaiacacujtlatl
• white phlegm: yztac alaoac
• yellow phlegm: coztic alaoac
• livid phlegm: xoxoctic alaoac
• purulent phlegm (with pus): temalalaoac.
And guess what was one of their treatments for dry nostrils? Washing the nostrils with urine!
Dr. Frances Karttunen has answered 4 questions altogether.
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Dr. Frances Karttunen
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