Ilacatz (MH832r)

Ilacatz (MH832r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Ilacatz (perhaps "Twisted" or "Bent") is attested here as a man's name. The adjective ilacatztic ("twisted") is appropriate for the chile pepper that appears in this glyph. But the gloss does not include any part of the word for chilli. However, there is another adjective for twisted, and this is quechilacatztic. It has "-chil-" in the middle, which seems like a possible explanation for the use of the chile pepper to demonstrate something twisted.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Chile peppers were sometimes metaphors for penises, given the name Tepolchil, which appears on MH852r. See also Chilcotoc (MH626r), below. According to Gustavo Corral (in his article, "A Chile is Never Just a Chile" (2015) published in Empire and Colonialism, Food and Sexuality, Latin American Sexualities, https://notchesblog.com/2015/09/24/sex-and-food-in-mexico/) "The linkage of the chile with eroticism and the penis can be found in the writings of the early Spanish chroniclers."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

matheo ylacaz

Gloss Normalization: 

Mateo Ilacatz

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
adjective
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
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
diagonal or angled
facing right
frontal view
profile view
striped
twisted or entwined
Keywords: 

nombres de hombres, chiles, torcido, rayado

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

ilacatztic, something bent or twisted, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ilacatztic
quechilacatztic, twisted, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quechilacatztic

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 832r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=738&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).

Orthography: 
"y" for i
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

ilacatztli (MH485r)

Chilcotoc (MH626r)