Cuitlatl
/ˈkʷit͡ɬat͡ɬ/noun
In Nahuatl, a word meaning excrement or filth.
Did you know?Cuitlatl is a real Nahuatl word, and in Mesoamerican texts it appears in very earthy, blunt contexts, showing how sacred and everyday speech could sit side by side without euphemism.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Nahuatl
Nah
cuitlatl
“excrement, filth, dung”
Postclassic Mesoamerica
Nah
cuitlatl
“used in everyday and literary Nahuatl for bodily waste or dirt”
16th Century
Nah/Spanish
cuitlatl
“recorded by Spanish friars and lexicographers in Nahuatl vocabularies”
Modern scholarship
Nah
cuitlatl
“standardly glossed as excrement, filth, or dung in Nahuatl dictionaries”