Az·tec

(ăz′tĕk′)

1. A member of a people of central Mexico whose civilization was at its height at the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century.

2. The Nahuatl language of the Aztecs.

adj. also Az·tec·an (-tĕk′ən)

Of or relating to the Aztecs or their language, culture, or empire.

[Spanish Azteca, from Nahuatl Aztecatl, one who comes from the place of the cranes : áztatl, crane + -técatl, suff.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Aztecan - the Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Aztec

Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztecan language - a family of American Indian languages

Translations

aztekisch

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Legend has it that Spanish explorers cultivated grapes here for six years before setting sail for Central America in search of the great Aztecan Empire.

New vineyard

Tamalli is the Aztecan word for tamales, and Sedlar's version is spectacular.

Mexican food's moment: at a handful of restaurants around California and way beyond the combo plate. Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize--winning L.A. food writer, reveals the top trends

The Franciscans educated the native children who survived the conquest, teaching them to read and write in Spanish, Latin and Nahuatl (the Aztecan language).

Chasing The Sun: a playwright puts himself in a child's shoes by retracing the steps of a conquistador

Once the project was completed, no historian would ever again talk about any other wonders in the world, for the fame of this Modern House of Babel would dwarf the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Egyptian Pyramids, the Aztecan Tenochtitlan, or the Great Wall of China.

Postcolonialism and the politics of resistance: Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow

Believers in Mexican herbal remedies prefer to eat Nopal (Opuntia tomentosa), a native cactus cooked with salt, and consumed on its own, or together with the fruit, in order to control diabetes, an old Aztecan prescription.

A comparative study of medicinal plant cultivation and uses in six Latin American cities

(5) When Aztecan, Mayan, and Incan temples were pulled down, the Spaniards built churches on top of them so as to demonstrate the Christian God's power over the indigenous gods.

Mother-tongue translations and contextualization in Latin America