Metzocuitla (MH550r)

Metzocuitla (MH550r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name Metzocuitla ("Thick Body Sweat," attested here as a man's name) shows a maguey plant (metl) with five vertical, pointed branches. Below the plant is a jumble of matter that may be part of the plant but could also refer to the tzocuitlatl, thick body sweat that is named in the gloss. It could also be the sap or one of the beverages derived from the maguey is indicated.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

There may be an implied odor in thick body sweat, hence the marking of sensory perception. The other word that may come into play here is metzontli, leg hair (if the "n" has been dropped inadvertently). But any relationship between leg hair and excrement (cuitlatl) is elusive.

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, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Beverages
Cleanliness, Orderliness, and their absence
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Sensory Perception
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiky
vertical, upright
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

me(tl), maguey, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/metl
metzon(tli), leg hair, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/metzontli
tzocuitla(tl), thick body sweat, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzocuitlatl
cuitla(tl), excrement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Maguey-Sudor Espeso del Cuerpo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood and Alonso de Molina

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 550r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=179&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: