popotl (Mdz17v)

popotl (Mdz17v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This is a yellow and white painting of the simplex glyph for the noun popotl (a plant-based broom). The yellow plant substance (which also looks much like zacatl, another type of grass used for making brooms) is tied with a white cloth at the base, where the stems come together.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Normally, today, we think of popote (the Hispanized form of popotl) as a straw for drinking, but it is a word and an object that probably evolved from the straw that fed horses or was used for making brooms.

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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Plants, Flora
Colors: 
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
tied, bound, or bundled
tripartite
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

zacatl, zacate, escobas, barrer

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

popo(tl), a plant used to make brooms, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/popotl

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 17 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 45 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)

See Also: 

tlachpanoni (Mdz57r)

zacatl (Mdz40r)