Cimatl (MH638r)

Cimatl (MH638r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cimatl ("Wild Potato," attested here as a man's name) shows three bulbous roots with two sprigs with leaves. The roots are vertical, and the branches bend off to the viewer's right. At the tip of one of the branches are two coils.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Apparently, this is both a wild potato (cimatl) and a medicinal plant (cimapatli or cimapahtli, with the glottal stop), which has been abbreviated in the name. The cimatl is still widely eaten in Mexico according to Michel Conan, Sacred Gardens and Landscapes (2007, 85).

Examples of this name include both Cima and Cimatl (see below). While this Cima is a man's name, another Cimatl (in another source) was the mother of doña Marina, the interpreter to Cortés. (See: Antoinette Sedillo López, Latina Issues, 2020.)

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çimatl

Gloss Normalization: 

Cimatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Health, Medicine
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
frontal view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Keywords: 

herbs, hierbas, roots, raíces, medicinas, cima

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

cima(tl), edible medicinal root of an herb, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cimatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Raíz o Tubérculo Comestible

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 638r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=358st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

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).

Orthography: 
"çi" for ci
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cimatl (MH575r)

Cima (MH520r)

Cima (MH660r)