Tecmilco (Mdz41r)
This compound glyph for the place name Tecmilco has two principal components, a diadem/crown {called the xiuhhuitzolli in Nahuatl] symbolizing a lord (teuctli or tecuhtli) and an agricultural field (milli). The locative suffix (-co, "in" or "at") is not shown visually, but perhaps the landscape provides a semantic locative. The element or glyph for lord (teuctli or tecuhtli is a turquoise-colored diadem in profile, facing the viewer's right. It has a point at what would be the front. It has a red tie, probably a leather strap. The milli is a segmented horizontal rectangle, with the segments alternating in color between terracotta-orange and purple. Each segment is textured with sideways u's and dots.
Stephanie Wood
One presumes the parcel of land was worked for the benefit of the teuctli/tecuhtli. The texturing of the parcel suggests that it is agricultural land. The segmenting may suggest parcelling. The diadem (called a xiuhhuitzolli) regularly serves as the hieroglyph for the word teuctli/tecuhtli, given that is what a lord might wear.
Stephanie Wood
tecmilco.puo
Tecmilco, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
teuctli, lords, señores, diadems, diademas, parcelas, agricultura, teuctli, nombres de lugares
teuc(tli), lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teuctli
mil(li), agricultural field, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/milli
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co
xiuhhuitzol(li), diadem, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhhuitzolli
Codex Mendoza, folio 41 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 92 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
