Mocuauhzoma (Verg38v)

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph is a black-line drawing of the personal name Mocuauhzoma, attested as pertaining to a man. The construction of the name is something like Motecuhzoma (reflexive+noun+verb), which here may render the meaning, “Angry Like an Eagle.” The components of the hieroglyph include, at the top, a hand (maitl), which provides the phonetic syllable for the ending of the name, -ma. Below that is the head of an eagle (cuauhtli), in profile, facing left. This is the noun in the construction, and possibly the key semantic contributor. On the neck of the eagle is a small stream of water (atl) with three short spurts, each one ending in a droplet or bead. The water provides a phonetic complement for the -ma ending to the name. What is not clear is how the Mo- start to the name and the -zo- syllable are represented. The eagle does seem to have some extra feathers on its neck which might provide some clues with further research.