Ocelotepec (Mdz52r)

Ocelotepec (Mdz52r)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Ocelotepec includes the head of a jaguar (ocelotl) on top of a hill or mountain (tepetl). The jaguar head is in profile, facing to our right. The top of the head is an orange-brown; the lower part and under the chin, the fur is white. The black spots vary in size, about the same size as the eye. The ears are standing up. The jaguar's eye is open, its red tongue is protruding, and it has white teeth that are visible. The locative suffix (-c) combines with the -tepe stem to give "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

oçelotepec. puo

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Ocelotepec, pueblo

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Keywords: 

jaguars, mountains, hills, jaguares, montañas, cerros

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

ocelo(tl), jaguar, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ocelotl
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec (locative suffix), on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec 

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"On the Hill of the Jaguar" (not offering an alternative to Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Hill of the Jaguar" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"En el Cerro del Jaguar" o "En la Montaña del Jaguar"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 39v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/39v/images/0 Accessed 10 September 2025

Image Source, Rights: 

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

See Also: 

ocelotl (Mdz52r)

tepetl (Mdz52r)

ocelotl (FCbk11f1v)