Teuhcaxal (MH778v)

Teuhcaxal (MH778v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Teuhcaxal (perhaps "Lazy Dust,") is attested here as a man's name. It shows a swirling line of dust (teuhtli) particles. The laziness (if the glyph draws from the adjective caxaltic) would be difficult to detect without a motion picture, but perhaps the swirling of the dust was imagined to be slow. Alternately, the root may be teuhcatl (akin to Cloud Serpent, which might be represented by dust devil, i.e., swirling dust) plus sand (xalli).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Whirlwinds are popular in Nahua glyphs. And we have a Teuhtli name that involves various swirls of dust (see below).

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

dieo teuhcaxal

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Teuhcaxal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Keywords: 

polvo, remolino, nombres de hombres

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

teuh(tli), dust, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teuhtli
teuhca(tl), the name of a divine force akin to Mixcoatl (Cloud Serpent), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Teuhcatl
caxaltic, lazy, inconsistent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/caxaltic
xal(li), sand, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xalli

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 778v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=631&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: