Timal (MH516r)
This simplex glyph for the personal name Timal is round with a quatrefoil star inside the circle, dotted or textured, and inside that shape is another smaller circle, making it a quincunx. Around the edges of the larger circle are small radiating lines, perhaps suggesting that the round object has vibrance, or perhaps this is a visual odor (if the area represents infection). The quincunx is painted red. The gloss, coming from the noun timalli, may relate to an excretion, possibly pus, or perhaps a gentle, womanly person. If the latter, then the glyph is a phonetic indicator that looks like a sore but may be intending to elicit gentle woman.
Stephanie Wood
In the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca of 1598, Tezozomoc mentions a Toltec named Timal, who was known to have super necromantic powers. Oxford defines necromantic as "relating to witchcraft or black magic, especially the supposed practice of communicating with the dead." [Wimmer 2004 quotes Tezozomoc, and this is published in the Gran Diccionario Náhuatl, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/timal/175522.] The religious prejudice in choosing the term should not overshadow the take-away that Timal was perceived to have special religious or ritual abilities, which may enter into the glyphs for the name Timal, taken by various men of central Mexico perhaps in honor of the famous Toltec man.
In some vocabulary terms found in the dictionary, the element -timal- leans toward something like "full of pride" or "glorified by others." These glyphs for the name Timal deserve further study.
Stephanie Wood
luis timal
Luis Timal
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
sores, pus, blood, inflammation, llagas, sangre, inflamación, pústulas, gentil mujer
timal(li), pus or evidence of an infection, or, a gentle woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/timalli
Pus o Mujer Gentil
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 516r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=111&st=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).
