mapachin (Mdz47r)

mapachin (Mdz47r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This element for thief (mapachin) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Mapachtepec. It features a (left) hand (maitl) grabbing something white and spiky.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The hand ("ma") provides a phonetic value, but the grabbing of something suggests the idea of stealing. To provide phonetic support for the interpretation of mapach- (thief), the material being grabbed is apparently chaff, hay, weeds or the like [pachtli, another phonetic reinforcement.

Added Analysis, 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

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Colors:

Keywords:

thieves, ladrones, mistletoe, hay, chaff or refuse of plants, muérdago, heno, paja o basura de plantas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

mapach(in), raccoon and, by extension, thief, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mapachin
pach(tli), hay or chaff, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pachtli
ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

thief

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).

mapachin (Mdz47r)Element from a Compound

Mapachtepec (Mdz47r)

mapachin (Mdz47r)
Element from a Compound