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When Words Cut Deep: A Brief Journey Through Nahuatl Insults

16th Mar 2025

Mexicolore contributor Agnieszka Brylak

We are indebted to Dr. Agnieszka Brylak for writing specially for us this enlightening feature on Nahuatl insults, gleaned from a range of Spanish colonial manuscripts. Dr. Brylak is a cultural historian and a philologist focusing on pre-Hispanic and early colonial Nahua culture and religion. She carries out research in the Institute of Iberian and Ibero-American Studies at the Faculty of Modern Languages of the University of Warsaw, Poland.

What did an irritated Mexica mutter under his breath when he stubbed his toe on a temple step? How could he shame a warrior or mock a ruler? While Nahua (or Aztec) culture is famous for its great pyramids and human sacrifices, its language also had a rich side - though often overshadowed by the more ‘serious’ aspects of elegant rhetoric - filled with creative insults, as sharp as obsidian blades.

Colonial authors writing in Nahuatl occasionally tried to capture how people spoke in the past. Among the most remarkable examples of Indigenous verbal expressions are elegant speeches - true gems of Nahuatl rhetoric - brimful with stylistic tropes and elaborate metaphors. However, these speeches represented an elevated, ceremonial style; they were highly formulaic and carefully crafted performances rather than reflections of everyday conversation. They certainly did not include curses or other verbal outbursts of frustration. Even the sample dialogues recorded in the late sixteenth-century manuscript called Bancroft Dialogues (housed at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley), reconstructing daily communication between neighbors or acquaintances, are dripping with politeness.

The quest for some juicy phrases might further lead one to the short Spanish-Nahuatl phrasebook, first published by Pedro de Arenas in 1611 and reprinted many times up to the nineteenth century. Likely working as a merchant, Arenas traveled frequently throughout the territory of New Spain and needed a non-religious lexicon to communicate with the Nahuas. Recognizing a gap in the publishing market, he created a text designed to help contemporary non-native speakers acquire basic communication skills in Nahuatl. Indeed, in this handy pocketbook, two chapters seem promising to offer today’s reader a peek at a Nahuatl repertoire of backhanded compliments and foul-mouthed remarks: the one with the phrases to complain about something (1611: 70–11) and another with expressions to scold and rebuke someone (1611: 76–77). However, these headlines only ignite futile hopes, as the content of these sections is once again a very sanitized list of possible verbal reactions to be uttered when annoyed. Ahqualli icnechpolohua, “they mistreat me!” (Arenas 1611: 71) or hamo tiquitta ca mochtin mitztlayelitta, “can’t you see that everyone abhors you!” (Arenas 1611: 77) don’t sound strong enough to allow someone to let off steam when they’re feeling agitated. The sharpest invective from this short and somehow disappointing repertoire is to be found in the following phrase: Ahqualli ticchihua tleican titlahueliloc, “You do bad things because you are wicked!” (Arenas 1611: 76).

The exact origin of the term for “wicked,” tlahueliloc, remains uncertain, but, most likely, it can be traced back to the verb tlahuelia, meaning “to be enraged at someone, to hate, or to despise.” This, in turn, comes from the noun tlahuelli, which refers to “rage, fury, or indignation” (Karttunen 1992: 268–269, see also Brylak 2021). Fray Alonso de Molina translates it in his sixteenth-century Nahuatl-Spanish and Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary as “maleficent, evil-doer,” “perverse,” “despicable,” “mean,” and “crazy, raving lunatic,” among others (Molina 1992, I: 81r, 95r, 106r, 78v). Tlahueliloc was, by no means, among the top three Nahuatl insults.
Surprisingly, one of the most fascinating examples of Nahuatl smack talk can be found in the materials collected by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and his Indigenous collaborators. In a manuscript housed at the Royal Academy of History in Madrid (the corpus of Codices Matritenses) - parts of which are published as Primeros Memoriales - the Franciscan documented lively dialogues that capture the essence of everyday quarrels.

These exchanges are carefully categorized based on the social status of the speakers (with the arguments among the noble pipiltin distinguished from those among the plebeian macehualtin) as well as their gender, with distinct verbal jabs for men and women. In this corpus, the insults used by the noble class, even in the heat of an argument, resemble those included by Arenas in his pocketbook - they appear relatively restrained. Instead of outright aggression, the interlocutors utter somewhat veiled remarks such as, “Do not be stupid. Be prudent. Consider yourself” (macamoxixtotomaoa ximimati ximixtili), or subtle digs at social status, like “Were you born by the watery sandstone and the grinding stone?” that is, “were you born a slave (to behave like that)? ” (cuix amo çan atexatitla metlatitlan titlacat). Even the equivalent of “shut up!” takes here a more refined tone: “Perhaps let your words now come to an end” (anoçoc ytla ma oallani y motlatol; Sahagún 1997: 295).

It is, however, the exchanges between commoners - regardless of gender - that, even though succinct, provide the most colorful and unfiltered expressions of Nahuatl insults. In this handy vocabulary we can find the following basic insults:
• nocné, tentatively translated as “scoundrel” (although Fray Alonso de Molina in his Vocabulario opted for a more descriptive explanation: “to address someone with contempt”, 1992, 1: 79v), which probably derives from icnotl, “poor, miserable;”
• tlapaltontli, “little man,” from tlapalli, meaning either a young man of marriageable age or a brave individual; as an insult, it questioned the bravery or maturity;
• xolopitli, one of the many Nahuatl terms challenging the intellectual abilities of an adversary; interestingly, in the Florentine Codex, xolo appears as a synonym of tepolli, “virile member” (see Sahagún 1950–82, X: 123), which could have added yet another semantic layer to it;
• tzincuecuetzocpol, “agitated buttocks,” and tzinapizmiqui, “starving buttocks,” which clearly refer to longing for sexual activities.

Commoners’ quarrels from Códices Matritenses, as well as other early-colonial sources, prove that a significant portion of Nahuatl insults was based on body shaming. Many derogatory terms drew attention to physical features in a way that exaggerated, ridiculed, or questioned a person’s appearance or abilities. Thus, one could be called ixmetlapilpol, “the one with too narrow and elongated face,” quatatacalpol, “the one with disheveled hair,” cuatemaxmaczolpol, “the one with broken head,” or yxpatzacpol, “one-eyed.” In this respect, one of the Nahuatl songs (cuicatl) from the Cantares mexicanos corpus (fols. 15r–16v) serves as a true treasure trove of refined and unconventional terms for mocking someone based on their appearance. It is a satirical roast of several prominent Central Mexican rulers from Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco, and Azcapotzalco. Let’s have a look at how it depicts Motecuzoma. A mocking voice describes him from foot to head, drawing attention to various parts of his body: his legs are twisted at the ankles (yxonehnecuilxoquechtlan); his buttocks are as a wooden bowl (tzincuauhcaxpil); he has a gaunt stomach (xillancapitz) and a “twisted heart” (yolloylacatz); his ribs are exposed, or his chest is rib-crooked (omicicuiltecuicuilpil); he has a crook-like hooked nose (yacachicuacolchicolpil); he is also hard-headed (cuatlatlacuacpil). These exaggerated descriptions surely must have amused the audience, but at the same time they demonstrated a creative way of crafting witty insults.

Interestingly, in the collection of Cantares mexicanos this song is labeled as huehuecuicatl, a title or category of cuicatl typically translated as “old song” or “song of the elders,” because of the term huehue. However, in this context, huehue does not necessarily refer to ancient wisdom or the respected senior members of the community. Instead, it highlights the humorous nature of these compositions, as huehue was also a Nahuatl term for a buffoon or jester. Even today, in various regions of Mexico, huehue dances (in Tlaxcala) and huehuenche performances (in Oaxaca) constitute an important part of Native carnival celebrations.

Another, though less original and sophisticated, way of dissing someone was through the use of ethnonyms. The Mexica considered Nahuatl the most beautiful of languages and speaking it was, for them, a source of pride. In contrast, it could be maliciously assumed that all non-Nahuatl speakers, deprived of the means to express themselves clearly and eloquently, were somehow deficient or mentally challenged. Consequently, instead of shooting at someone “You are stupid!” one could just say “You are a Popoloca,” “You are a Pinotl,” “You are a Tlalhuica,” or, the most frequently attested in the colonial sources, “You are an Otomí.” Book 10 of the Florentine Codex contains a whole array of invectives based on ethnic stereotypes.

It was also possible to insult an opponent by challenging their traditional gender roles. In a dispute between two commoner women, as reflected in the Códices Matritenses RAH manuscript, one woman asked the other: cuix tinonamic cuix tinoquichvi, “Are you my husband? Are you my spouse?” (Sahagún 1997: 297–298). However, in male-centered sources, this type of insult seems to have been particularly painful when directed at questioning a man’s virility and warrior skills. A striking example of a verbal duel evolving around these features (or the lack of them) appears in Book 2 of the Florentine Codex, during the celebration of the Huey Tozoztli festival. The two parties of the heated dialogue are a mature woman, supposedly acting in defense of young girls’ honor, and one of the youths who dared to flirt with the maidens. The woman attacks him:-
no uellatoa in cuexpalle, vel the titlatoa? ma ie ic xitlaocuia, quen uetziz in mocuexpal, cuexpaltone? cuexpaliiac, cuexpalpoto, amo çan tinocioapo? acan motlachinauja mocujtl. (Sahagún 1950–82, II: 63)
“Also, do you, with the long hair on the back, come to speak? Do you really dare to speak? Why don’t you worry about how to get rid of your long hair, you with the long hair on the back of your head? You, with a stinking occipital tuft of hair, with the smelly long hair on the back of your head, aren’t you just a woman like I am? Nowhere was your excrement burnt.”

Here, most of these invectives evolve around the term cuexpalli, referring to a lock of hair left on the neck of small children, which a boy and a warrior-to-be had cut off when becoming a man. In return, he had to keep up with the expectations of the society and satisfactorily fulfill the role of a Nahua man. The only way to do it was by capturing enemies on the battlefield. However, failing to succeed in this task repeatedly (that is, in three consecutive battles) made such an unfortunate fellow deserve the nickname cuexpalchicacpol, “youth with a baby’s lock” (Sahagún 2001: 685). If such a failure continued, the hopeless warrior would literally become a cuexpalchicacpol, having his nape “adorned” with feathers likely mimicking that particular hairstyle (Hassig 1988: 36, Pohl 2001: 15).

The above are just a small selection which does not fully reflect the wealth of curses and mocking insults in Nahuatl. Fortunately, the morphology of this language allowed for great creative flexibility in word formation. Want to try it yourself? Here are a few tips. On one hand, there was a group of terms and expressions that, when used as prefixes or qualifiers, could be added to any neutral word to color it appropriately. These included ahuilli, “pleasure,” but usually referring to sensual and lascivious behavior, icnotl, “miserable, poor, orphan,” topal, “presumptuous,” nen, “in vain, futilely,” cuitlatl, “excrement,” teopil, “senile, decrepit,” tlahueliloc, “wretched,” or xolo, “stupid.” On the other hand, the most common suffixes in derogatory speech were the diminutive -ton(tli), -pil, and -tzin(tli) and the derogatory -pol. These prefix-like qualifiers and suffixes could be freely combined. Here are some examples. The quarreling women from Códices Matritenses call one another tlahuelilocatontli, “little wretched one,” and icnopillahueliloc, “miserable little wicked one,” while the passage of Book 10 of the Florentine Codex describes a bad “old man” (huehue) as teopilhuehue, xoxolohuehue, topalhuehue, ahuilhuehue, and totonpotlahuehue (Sahagún 1950–82, X: 11).

Interested in testing it out?

References:-
• Arenas, P. de (1611) Vocabulario manual de las lenguas castellana y mexicana, Imprenta de Henrico Martinez
• Bierhorst, J. (1985a) Cantares mexicanos. Songs of the Aztecs, Stanford University Press
• Brylak, A. (2021) ‘Buffoons and Sorcerers: Merging of Witchcraft and Entertainment in Colonial Sources on Pre-Hispanic Nahuas’, Colonial Latin American Review, 30(3), 342–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/10609164.2021.1947043
• Hassig, R. (1988) Aztec Warfare, Imperial Expansion and Political Control, University of Oklahoma Press
• León-Portilla, M. (Ed.) (2011) Cantares mexicanos. Paleography, translation & notes by M. León Portilla, L. Silva Galeana, F. Morales Baranda & S. Reyes Equiguas. 3 vols. UNAM-Fideicomiso Teixidor
• Karttunen, F. (1992) An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl, University of Oklahoma
• Molina, Fray A. de (1992) Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, Editorial Porrúa
• Pohl, J. M. D. (2001) Aztec Warrior: AD 1325-1521, Osprey Publishing
• Sahagún, Fray B. de (1986) Coloquios y Doctrina Cristiana con que los doce frailes de San Francisco, enviados por el papa Adriano VI y por el emperador Carlos V, convirtieron a los indios de la Nueva España. En lengua mexicana y española, M. León-Portilla (Ed.), UNAM - Fundación de Investigaciones Sociales A.C.
• Sahagún, Fray B. de (1997) Primeros Memoriales, T. D. Sullivan (Ed.), University of Oklahoma Press
• Sahagún, Fray B. de (2001) Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España, 2 vols. Dastin
• The Art of Nahuatl Speech: the Bancroft Dialogues, edited with a preliminary study by Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, University of California, Los Angeles, 1987.

Read more:-
• Brylak, A. (in press) The Rabbit, the Navel, and the Jester Ruler. Humor and Laughter Among the Pre-Hispanic Nahuas, Leiden, BRILL
• Escalante Gonzalbo, P. (1990) ‘Insultos y saludos de los antiguos nahuas. Folklore e historia social’ Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 61, 29–46.

Picture sources:-
• Pix 1, 5 & 13: photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore, based on the front cover image from Huehuetlahtolli: Testimonios de la antigua palabra by Miguel León-Portilla and Librado Silva Galeana, SEP/FCE, Mexico City, 1991
• Pic 2: images L & R scanned from Huehuetlahtolli (see above); image (centre) from Discursos Mexicanos : Mexico, [17th century], BANC MSS M-M 458, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, courtesy of Dean Smith, The Bancroft Library
• Pic 3: images downloaded from https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/-MEXICAN-IMPRINT--1611--Pedro-de-Arenas-Vocabulario-manual-d?saleno=2546&lotNo=272&refNo=772167
• Pic 4: image (L) downloaded from http://bdmx.mx/documento/bernardino-sahagun-codices-matritenses; image (R) scanned from Primeros Memoriales by Fernando Bernardino de Sahagún, facsimile edition, University of Oklahoma Press, 1993 (folio 266r, detail)
• Pix 6 & 7(R): images from the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition, London
• Pic 7 (L): image downloaded from https://www.redalyc.org/journal/7375/737578461002/html/
• Pic 8: photo by Arkikecto, downloaded from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huehue_Tlaxcala_carnaval.jpg
• Pic 9: image from the Florentine Codex scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Pic 10: composite of two images scanned from Huehuetlahtolli (see above)
• Pic 11: illustration in Mexicolore archives (private collection)
• Pic 12: image from the Codex Borgia scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1976.

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Mexicolore contributor Agnieszka Brylak

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When Words Cut Deep: A Brief Journey Through Nahuatl Insults

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