Huetzquiz (MH666r)

Huetzquiz (MH666r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Huetzquiz (“Laughter,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a frontal view of a strange face that has a mouth with curving lips, one small middle front tooth, and two long curving fangs for canine teeth. The gloss suggests that "laughter" (huetzquiztli) is the intention for the name--more than teeth (tlantli) or fangs like the (coatlane) (which appears in the translation Florentine Codex, 1963, Book 11, p. 5).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The presence of such large canines calls to mind thorns (huitztli), which could play a role in the name. Perhaps also the verb quiza, to go out, refers to the showing of the teeth. Protruding fangs, such as those on the biting bat (below), were often colored red and white like thorns, possibly pointing to the role of sharp objects being used for bloodletting. See also the glyph for the Huetzquiz name on MH529r, which has a strange mouth much like the one on this face (but not the full face). There was a mid-sixteenth-century ruler of Tenochtitlan, Tehuetzquiti, who had a glyph much like the face of Huetzquiz here.

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

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Humor (potentially)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Keywords:

sonrisas, risa, smiles, fangs, teeth, dientes, colmillos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huetzquiz(tli), laughter or a smile, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huetzquiztli
tehuetzquiti, a buffoon or joker, makes people laugh or frightens them, and the name of a governor of Tenochtitlan in the 16th c., https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tehuetzquiti
huitz(tli), thorn, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitztli
quiza, to emerge, go out, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiza

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Risa

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 666r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=412&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: