Tecuicuil (MH647v)

Tecuicuil (MH647v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for Tecuicuil ("Varied in Color" or “Painted Stone”) is attested here as a man's name. It shows a stone (tetl), fairly horizontal, with a curling right end and two stripes across its middle. On the left end of the stone and below it are curling symbols that refer perhaps to cuicuiltic, something painted and often with multiple colors.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The tetl appears to be a phonetic indicator for the start of the name. Tecuicuiltic, a dictionary word, does not necessarily have anything to do with stones. That said, the archaeological site of Cuicuilco has painted stones, and they are decorated with squiggly lines that resemble this and other glyphs for just Cuicuil.

Marc Thouvenot identifies the verb icuiloa (or ihcuiloa, with the glottal stop), which means to paint, write, or print, as having a root of -cuil-. He notes how it also appears in tlacuiloliztli (writing), tlacuilo (writer), and cuicuiltic (mottled). He goes on to show various uses of icuiloa that take it beyond the simple definitions just given, resulting in something like the action of creating a design (e.g., on leather, ceramics, sculpture, or in textiles). It can also be something like the action of decorating (e.g., to put a flower on a cup of atole). He associates icuiloa and tlacuilolli with "cultural artifacts," such as arts and crafts or examples of writing and painting, but cuicuiltic with effects created by "nature." This short summary barely does his article justice; it is worth reading the entire piece. How Thouvenot's study might connect with the concept of bent or curved mentioned by Prem (1974: 555, 682) raises an interesting question. Perhaps the bent or curved lines of writing, painting, carving, embroidery, and so on, fall with in the realm of expressions of -cuil-. See
Marc Thouvenot, "Imágenes y escritura entre los nahuas del inicio del XVI," Estudios de Cultural Náhuatl 41 (2010).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Anto tecuicuil

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Tecuicuil

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

multicolored, de muchos colores, piedras, pintar, pinturas, escrituras, escribir, remolinos, nombres de hombres

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

This drawing of the red lines that are painted on stones at the Cuicuilco archaeological site seems to capture something of the tecuicuiltic concept (painted stone). Credit: INAH signage at the site of what Byron Cummings called a temazcalli, outside the round pre-Classic pyramid. (SW)

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

De Muchos Colores

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 647r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=377&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: