tonalamatl means A divinatory almanac used in central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, and structured around the sacred 260-day year. It carries an Arena rating of 1380, earned across 40 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tonalamatl ranks #74 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #596 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #793 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,815 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “tonalamatl” is a great word
TONALAMATL — [Noun] A sacred divinatory almanac used in central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, structured around the inviolable 260-day ritual year. From Classical Nahuatl tōnalāmatl, from tōnalli ("day, day's fortune") + āmatl ("paper, book"), literally meaning "book of days". Unlike a "codex" (a general manuscript that may hold history or tribute) or a "calendar" (a system for organizing civic or agricultural time), a tonalamatl is a precise instrument for navigating fate. It is the painted deerhide grid of deities and omens, the priest's finger tracing the path of a newborn's destiny, and the austere mathematics of time binding the human pulse to the gears of the cosmos—a map not of lands, but of possible lives.
Etymology
From Classical Nahuatl tōnalāmatl (literally “book of days”).
noun
- A divinatory almanac used in central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, and structured around the sacred 260-day year.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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