Cimatl (MH575r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cimatl (“Wild Potato,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a bifurcated root with two leafy sprigs above. The term cimatl refers to the root specifically. According to the Florentine Codex (1963, Book 11, 125 and 133), if not properly cooked, the root can cause vomiting and diarrhea. The plant above ground is the cuauheco and/or the cimapatli (cimapahtli, with the glottal stop).
Stephanie Wood
The cimatl is still widely eaten in Mexico according to Michel Conan, Sacred Gardens and Landscapes (2007, 85).
Other examples of this name include Cima and Cimatl (see below). While this Cima is a man's name, another Cimatl (in another source) was the mother of the interpreter to Cortés, doña Marina. (See: Antoinette Sedillo López, Latina Issues, 2020.)
Stephanie Wood
galisto. cimatl
Calixto Cimatl
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
herbs, hierbas, roots, raíces, medicinas, cima, nombres de hombres
cima(tl), edible medicinal root of an herb, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cimatl
Raíz o Tubérculo Comestible
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 575r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=229&st=image
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