quachtli

Etymology

From Nahuatl [Term?].

quachtli means A piece of standardized cloth used as currency in Mesoamerica until shortly after the arrival of Europeans. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 100 out of 100.

Why this word is great

QUACHTLI — [Noun] A standardized unit of textile currency, a large bolt of cotton cloth used for tribute and major transactions in Mesoamerica. From Nahuatl quachtli, a term for a large cotton cloak or mantle. Unlike the cacao bean, which jingled through marketplaces for minor trade, or the personal tilmatli draped for warmth or status, the quachtli was a formal measure of stored worth. It was the heavy, bleached bundle in a merchant’s strongbox, the precise stacks counted out before a royal steward, and the patient, accumulating squares that could be unraveled into a daughter’s wedding huipil—a civilization choosing to weigh its commerce not in metal, but in the frozen time of the loom.

noun

A piece of standardized cloth used as currency in Mesoamerica until shortly after the arrival of Europeans.