cocolli (Mdz37r)
This simplex glyph for the place name Cocollan doubles as the glyph for cocolli (quarrel, dispute, anger). It is a dark gray cloud with a swirling effect (see coltic, which serves as a phonetic complement here). It includes black lines inside the cloud and a scalloped edge on the outer circle.
Stephanie Wood
We count this glyph as relating to emotions, which are a challenge to express graphically, regardless of the culture. The swirling dark cloud could suggest dust (teuhtli) rising during a skirmish, or smoke (poctli) from a fire set to a building during a conflict, or a cluster of speech scrolls suggesting a heated argument. There are not many glyphs that convey emotion. Other examples are the glyphs for pleasure (ahuiliztli and the glyph showing a widow or abandoned woman (cahualli). (See below, right.)
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/cocolli37rSIMPLEX.jpeg?itok=mODkZXr-)
cocol(li), a quarrel, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cocolli
coltic, curved, bent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coltic
Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)