icpatl (Mdz15v)
This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Icpatepec. This component is a ball of white thread or yarn (icpatl), drawn in black lines. The ball is characterized by concentric circles, but it also has a cross (horizontal and vertical), that may indicate threads that bind the ball together.
Stephanie Wood
While this image serves to represent, visually, a ball of yarn, it is phonetic indicator for "icpac," which means "on top of," as in On Top of the Mountain, referring to the place, Icapatepec (or Icpactepec). Therefore the noun doubles as a preposition.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
balls of yarn, balls of thread, above, atop, on top of, above
icpa(tl), thread or yarn, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icpatl
icpac, on top, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icpac
thread, yard, above, on top
la bola de hilo, o encima de
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 41 of 188.
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).
