Cuacuauh (MH485r)

Cuacuauh (MH485r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This personal name glyph, Cuacuauh ("Horned," from cuacuahuitl, horns), is built onto the head of the man who bears the name. The head is shown in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. The horns lean backward from the top of his head. They have some texturing on the top two-thirds of the horns.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

These horns were frequently associated with oxen, bulls, and cows, animals that were introduced during colonization. Cattle, which roamed fairly freely in the sixteenth century, devouring maize fields, were well known to Nahuas. This consumption or eating is perhaps incidentally reflected in the name they were given, which has cua, to eat, reduplicated. In European culture, cows are known for "chewing their cud." There is also a worm, the ocuilin cuacuahue. The definition from Alonso de Molina emphasizes its "little horns" or "feelers" (cuernezillos), rather than its tendency to eat a lot. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary. Juan José Batalla Rosado (El Arte de Escribir, 2018, 76) includes the cuacuahuitl ("cuerno de animal") in his list of visual loans. He finds the Matrícula de Huexotzinco to show the greatest degree of Western influence of all colonial codices.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

diego guaguauh

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Cuacuauh

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Shapes and Perspectives: 
Other Cultural Influences: 
Keywords: 

horns, cuernos, astas, cattle, ganado, toros, vacas, bueyes, cows, oxen, bulls

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

cuacuauh(tli), horns/antlers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuacuahuitl-2
cuacuahue, ox, bull, cow, or other horned animal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuacuahue
ocuilin cuacuahue, worm with little horns or feelers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ocuilin-cuacuahue

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Él con Cuernos, o Él con Astas

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 485r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=45&st=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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: