Note 29 — INDEX OF NAHUATL PROPER NAMES, WITH EXPLANATIONS.
Reading edition
Simeon, however, thinks the name arose from the growing and swelling of the sound of the instrument (notes to Jourdanet's translation of Sahagun, p. 28). Mr. H.H. Bancroft gives the astonishing translation of teponaztli, "wing of stone vapor!" (Native Races of the Pacific States, Vol. II, p. 293.) Brasseur traced the word to a Maya-Quiche root, tep. In both Nahuatl and Maya this syllable is the radicle of various words meaning to increase, enlarge, to grow strong or great, etc.