Tepizcamecatl (MH729r)

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tepizcamecatl (“Small Rope”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shown here can be translated as enslaved person (tlacotl) or, playing a phonetic role, middle child (tlaco). It shows the head and neck of a man in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. He has a yoke around his neck that is tied to what may be a bundle of osier twigs (tlacotli). The idea of something tied may be pointing to -mecatl (cord, rope), the concluding part to the name. The start to the name, Tepizca- could mean small, given the similarity to the adjective tepizcantzin. Perhaps the final “n” of this adjective stem (tepizcan-) became merged with the “m” of mecatl.