Cuauhol (MH579r)

Cuauhol (MH579r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Cuauhol (the name of a medicinal herb). The name is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a profile view of a human head (cuaitl) with a rubber (olli) ball on top. The ball is not completely filled in with black ink as some others can be. The cua- (head) is a near homophone to cuauh- (wood), and the -ol (rubber) provides the remaining phonetic element to the name. So, this compound is fully phonographic.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This is the name of a medicinal herb "called cuauholli. Its leaves are very green, malleable, and somewhat round. It also oozes milk and has red branches. The milk drips from the leaves and from the shoots when these are cut. This milk, when put in the eyes, tempers their heat and removes their redness: it clears them up and purifies them." (See the Digital Florentine Codex, Book 11, folio 154 recto, translation by León García-Garagarza, https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/book/11/folio/154r.) Other names for the plant are tetzmitic and tetzmetl.

For a variety of compound glyphs that begin with Cua- (head) and have a second element balanced on top of the head, see below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

dieo. guaol.

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Cuaol

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
homophony, rebus
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Humor (potentially)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Rubber
Sports, Games, Leisure
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

rubber, hule, balls, pelotas, heads, cabezas

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

-cua, head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cua-2
ol(li), rubber ball, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/olli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Cabeza-Hule

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 579r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=237&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: 
See Also: 

Cuachil (MH517v)

Cuachal (MH537v)

Cuaitz (MH537r)

Cuaonte (MH566v)

Cuapolol (MH521v)

Cuatzontli (MH536r)