Elotl (MH529v)

Elotl (MH529v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Elotl (“Fresh Corn Cob,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a frontal view of a single, upright, ear of maize or corn cob. The kernels are visible even as the back half of the cob is tightly sheathed with husk.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Elote is a major feature of Mexican cuisine. With 5,000+ records in this database (spring 2024), the noun xilotl (green corn) is much more in evidence than the noun elotl (ripened corn). This is somewhat surprising, given that the Hispanized form, "elote," is much more common in Mexican Spanish than "jilote."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Corn, Maize
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
frontal view
segmented
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

maíz, elotes, comida

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

elo(tl), young ear of maize, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/elotl

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 529v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=138&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: 

xilotl (Mdz26r)

xilotl (Mdz44r)

Xilotl (MH507v)

Molcamani (MH608r)