Aocnel (MH489r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Aocnel (perhaps "Good for Nothing," here attested as a man's name) appears to feature a cup with a straw, a stirrer, or a mortar for pulverizing or mixing. The meaning of the visual has yet to be deciphered. Might this be some kind of container for creating a medicinal?
Stephanie Wood
Aoc (an adverb) means no longer. Nel was originally short for nelli (an adjective), true, but James Lockhart explains that it became ubiquitous in particle combinations, losing the meaning of "true." See Lockhart's explanation in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary entry for canel.
Another Aocnel personal name glyph in this collection (see below) has a completely different motif (a plant). Perhaps it is a medicinal plant.
Orozco y Berra suggests a translation of "bueno para nada," good for nothing. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary entry.
Stephanie Wood
martin aocnel
Martín Aocnel
Stephanie Wood
1560
Stephanie Wood
nombres de hombres
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Aocnel_MH489r_SmplxPersName.png?itok=-1axyoVQ)
aocnel, good for nothing, null, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/aocnel
aoc, no longer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/aoc
nel(li), true, -qui, one who has this occupation, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nelli
Bueno Para Nada
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 489r, World Digital Library. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=57&st=image
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/Aocnel_MH489r_Context.png)