tlatoani means an emperor of the Aztec kingdom. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
TLATOANI — [Noun] The sovereign ruler of an Aztec city-state (altepetl), whose authority was vested in his role as the sacred speaker for gods and people. From Classical Nahuatl tlatoani, from tla- (unspecified object prefix) + ihtoa ("to say, to speak") + -ni (agentive suffix), literally meaning "he who speaks" or "speaker." Unlike the *huey tlatoani* (which denotes the "great speaker" or emperor of the Triple Alliance) or the *cihuacoatl* (the governing steward of internal order), a tlatoani was the embodied voice and singular will of his own polity. He was the strategist tracing campaigns in maize flour on a mat, the priest atop the pyramid holding a still-beating heart to the sun, the resonant silence that fell when he donned the turquoise diadem—the mortal instrument through which a city spoke its fate, making every dawn a precarious act of creation.
noun
- An emperor of the Aztec kingdom.