huehue (Mdz47r)

huehue (Mdz47r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for an old man or elder (huehue) also serves as the glyph for the place name, Huehuetlan. It is the head of an older man with wispy white hair, many wrinkles, and possibly missing teeth. He has terracotta-colored skin.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Aging (People, Animals, Things)
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Hair (human or animal)
Mouth/Beak Open
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
wrinkles
Keywords: 

elders, old men, gray haired, white haired, wrinkled, missing tooth, dientes perdidos, el pelo gris, el pelo canoso, el cabello gris, el cabello canoso, arrugado

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

huehue, an old man, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehue-0

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

old man

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el viejo, el anciano

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 47 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 104 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).