tecuhtli (Mdz18r)

tecuhtli (Mdz18r)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for lord (tecuhtli) features the diadem or crown (called a xiuhhuitzolli) that a male lord would wear. It has been carved from the compound glyph of the title, Tlacatecuhtli. This diadem is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right. It is painted turquoise blue, it has a point at the top, and it has a red (possibly leather) tie where the back of the head would be.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The diadem (xiuhhuitzolli) does not play a phonetic role in the glyph name. It is symbolic of the title lord (tecuhtli). Its color, turquoise (xihuitl) enters into the construction of the name for the diadem.

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

Semantic Categories: 
title/office
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Leather, hides
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
pointed (see also spiky)
tied, bound, or bundled
Keywords: 

diadems, diademas, crowns, coronas, lords, nobles, señores, teuctli

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

tecuh(tli), lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuhtli
xiuhhuitzo(li), turquoise diadem, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhhuitzolli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

un señor

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 18 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 46 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

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).

See Also: 

Tlacatecuhtli (Mdz18r)

tecuhtli (Mdz41r)

Tecuhtoz (MH554v)