Tonecuauh (MH733v)

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name, Tonecuauh (perhaps “Afflicted Tree”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a tree (cuahuitl) with what might be taken to have arms and legs and its head cut off. Perhaps this is an effort to suggest the verb tonehua, to afflict. The ends of the upper branches have the iconography associated with amaranth (huauhtli), which may have been added to the glyph as a phonetic indicator for the “cuauh” sound. Trees found in the Codex Mendoza, as shown below, do not have these same lines for foliage that amaranth has.