Tequicen (MH618v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tequicen (perhaps a "Cut Corn Cob," attested here as a man's name) shows a maize (cintli or centli) cob that has been cut (tequi) from a plant. The cob is segmented, an indication of the kernels.
Stephanie Wood
Ce and cem can simply refer to the number one, which could come into play in this name, in addition to referring to an ear of corn. The glyph for the personal name Cemolotl comes to mind. Cemolotl was a way of saying "one" (given that olotl was a counter in the numbering system). Of course, olotl also refers to one maize cob after the kernels were removed. Given the centrality of these objects to daily life for the Nahuas, it is no wonder that they could be useful as counters.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
maíz seca, mazorca seca, cortar, verbo, nombre de persona, centli, cintli
tequi, to cut, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tequi
cin(tli), dried corn on the cob, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cintli
cen(tli), dried corn on the cob, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/centli-0
La Mazorca Seca
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 618v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=319st=image.
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).
