Cuicuil (MH901v)

Cuicuil (MH901v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuicuil (perhaps "A Painting") is attested here as a man's name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a rectangle that is divided into three horizontal sections. The top two have squiggly lines that suggest a painting (cuilolli). The bottom section is blank. The gloss indicates a reduplication of the cuil root, and perhaps the two lines of painting are meant to provide a visual reduplication.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Marc Thouvenot identifies the verb icuiloa (or ihcuiloa, with the glottal stop), which means to paint, write, or print, as having a root of -cuil-. He notes how it also appears in tlacuiloliztli (writing), tlacuilo (writer), and cuicuiltic (mottled). He goes on to show various uses of icuiloa that take it beyond the simple definitions just given, resulting in something like the action of creating a design (e.g., on leather, ceramics, sculpture, or in textiles). It can also be something like the action of decorating (e.g., to put a flower on a cup of atole). He associates icuiloa and tlacuilolli with "cultural artifacts," such as arts and crafts or examples of writing and painting, but cuicuiltic with effects created by "nature." This short summary barely does his article justice; it is worth reading the entire piece. How Thouvenot's study might connect with the concept of bent or curved mentioned by Prem (1974: 555, 682) raises an interesting question. Perhaps the bent or curved lines of writing, painting, carving, embroidery, and so on, fall with in the realm of expressions of -cuil-. See
Marc Thouvenot, "Imágenes y escritura entre los nahuas del inicio del XVI," Estudios de Cultural Náhuatl 41 (2010).

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

balnabe cuicuil

Gloss Normalization: 

Bernabé Cuicuil

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

pintar, girar, remolino, curvilíneo, curvo, escribir, papel, nombres de hombres

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

cuicuiltic, something painted or spotted, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuicuiltic
cuilol(li), a painting, patterns, or designs, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuilolli
cuicuiloa, to paint something many colors, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cu%C4%ABcu%C4%ABlo%C4%81

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Pintura, o Pintado o Manchado

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 901v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=875&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).

Orthography: 
Historical Contextualizing Image: