Itzcuintli
/itsˈkʷĩntɬi/noun
A Nahuatl word meaning “dog,” especially used in English in reference to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture and dog breeds.
Did you know?In the Aztec ritual calendar, Itzcuintli was a day sign associated with dogs, while the deity Xolotl was believed to guide the dead through the underworld.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Nahuan
Proto-Nahuan
*itskuintli
“Reconstructed ancestral form associated with “dog”; the deeper origin is uncertain.”
Classical Nahuatl
Nahuatl
itzcuintli
“Dog; the standard Classical Nahuatl noun.”
16th Century
Spanish
izcuinte / itzcuintli
“Spanish colonial-era forms used when recording Nahuatl words and Mesoamerican customs.”
19th–20th Century
English
itzcuintli
“A scholarly and cultural loanword referring to the Nahuatl term for dog.”
Modern English
English
itzcuintli
“A specialized English loanword, most often encountered in discussions of Aztec culture, mythology, or Indigenous Mexican dogs.”