Tzapinco (MH571r)

Tzapinco (MH571r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tzapinco (perhaps, “Location of Thorn Pricks” attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a small head looking right. The head has a thorn on top, pointing upward. The verb tzapinia, to be pricked by thorns, may come into play here--perhaps with an added locative suffix (-co), which is unusual for a personal name and not shown visually. The adjective pintic refers to something being small and pointed, which also seems to align with the presentation of the head and the thorn. But the analysis feels incomplete.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Another less likely interpretation might refer to a small grackle (formed from tzana + pintic), with the visuals being phonographic. An even greater stretch might be that the name should really be Tzompi ("Hair Puller"), and the "a" in the gloss is wrong.

Thorns have a significant place in Nahua culture. Thorns were used for bloodletting, a self-sacrificial act. Huitztli was the usual term for the relevant thorns. There was even a thorn decorated with the precious green stone (jade or jadeite). See below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

peo tzapico

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Tzapinco

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
adjective
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
verb
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
pointed (see also spiky)
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

thorns, spines, espinas, cabezas, heads

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

tzapinia, to be pricked by thorns, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzapinia
pintic, something small and pointed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pintic

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Pequeña Cabeza Puntiaguda (?)

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 571r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=221&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: 
See Also: 

huitztli (Mdz39r)

Huitznahuac (T2781:11:511r)

Huitznahuac (CmpRG)

chalchihuitztli (TR9v)