ecatl (MH607v)
This is a black-line drawing of an element from a compound glyph for the noun ecatl ("Breath" or "Air"). The original is for the name, Ecatl Iztac. This element shows a representation of the divine force of wind (Ehecatl), with a buccal mask that included a device for blowing wind.
Stephanie Wood
A great many glyphs in this collection start with Eca- when Ehecatl is expected, given the iconography. The gloss here gives "Ecatl," but the visuals suggest "Ehecatl." We are recognizing the possibility of an unintentional oral abbreviation of Eheca- to Eca-. But, if the shortening of the name is intentional, it may be a response to the edict of 1540 prohibiting the naming of Nahua children after deities that led to a favoring of Ecatl over Ehecatl, as a kind of disguise. See Norma Angélica Castilla Palma, "Las huellas del oficio y lo sagrado en los nombres nahuas de familias y barrios de Cholula," Dimensión Antropológica v. 65 (sept.-dic. 2015), 186. Castilla also mentions how there were pressures to stop using names from the tonalpohualli, and this led to the dropping of the number that went with the day name. Such a number is absent here. So the whole result is a lessening of the sacred aspects, perhaps mainly for outsiders.
Stephanie Wood
Juan Ecatl
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
viento, aire, aliento, fuerzas divinas, divinidades, deidades, religión, nombres de hombres
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/ehecatl2MH607v.png?itok=0IU5o6LW)
eheca(tl), wind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ehecatl
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 607v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=297st=image.
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).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/EcatlMH607vContext.png)