ecatl (MH609r)
This is a black-line drawing of a glyphic element, the noun ecatl ("breath" or "air"), which has been extracted from the compound name Quetzalecatl. The visual clearly points to the buccal mask with the wind-blowing device associated with the divine force of the wind, Ehecatl.
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.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
mascarillas, boca, viento, aliento, aire, fuerzas divinas, patos
eca(tl), breath, air, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecatl
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 609r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=300st=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).
