Mecahua (MH735r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Mecahua (perhaps “He Has a Mistress”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a rope (mecatl) that is loosely doubled over, twisted, and frayed at one end. The -hua or -huan ending to the name, indicating possession, is not shown visually.
Stephanie Wood
If the name were literal, it would translate “He Has a Rope,” but one meaning of mecatl refers to having one or more mistresses. The term entered Spanish slang as mecate with this meaning.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
amantes, concubinas, sogas, cordones, nombres de hombres
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/MecahuaMH735vSmplxPNM.png?itok=EABnG6hH)
meca(tl), cord/rope, or concubine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mecatl
-hua (possessive suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua-0
mecahua, someone with one or more mistresses, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mecahua
Tiene Concubina
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 735r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=548&st=image
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).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/MecahuaMH735vContext.png)