Tlacamazatl (TK207r)

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the personal name Tlacamazatl (“Brute” or “Beastly Man”), and, not surprisingly, attested as a man’s name. It has three elements, and the reading order is upward. A pair of white front teeth (tlantli) with red gums above are the first element, and the teeth provide the phonetic syllable (-tla-) at the start of the name. Above the teeth is a human (tlacatl) head, actually a man, in profile facing left, reiterating the -tla- and adding -ca-. Attached to the human head are deer (mazatl) antlers, which contribute the final two syllables of the name. While one could imagine this name translating literally as Human-Deer, the definition provided by Alonso de Molina in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary is a “brute” or a “bestial man.” Frances Karttunen suggests “someone rabid, vicious.”