Aocnel (MH506v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Aocnel (perhaps "Good for Nothing," attested here as male) shows a gourd or squash (ayotl) on a stem with two leaves and perhaps a few roots at the bottom. If intentional, ayotl is a near homophone for Aoc. The plant leans to the viewer's right. The upper shape is round with three visible segments and perhaps two stamens or pistils emerging from the top. The leaves have a line down the length of each one, and one half of each leaf is shaded. The -nel part of the name is not shown visually.
Stephanie Wood
Orozco y Berra (see our dictionary entry) suggests "good for nothing" or "null" as a translation. 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.
Other Aocnel glyphs (see below) sometimes appear to show gourds or pumpkins on the one hand, or cups with stirring implements on the other, seemingly providing indications of mixing for the -nel part of the name.. Gourds could be made into cups or bowls.
Stephanie Wood
Juā
aocnel
Juan Aocnel
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
flowers, flores, plantas, nombres de hombres
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 506v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=92&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).
